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TWENTIETH CENTURY TEXT-BOOKS 



TWENTIETH CENTURY TEXT-BOOKS 

1 



SELECT POEMS 

OF 

ROBERT BROWNING 

n 

EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 

BY 

HUGH C. LAUGHLIN, A.M. 

INSTRUCTOR m THE MORRIS HIGH SCHOOL, NEW YORK CITY 




D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK CHICAGO 



Copyright, 1912, by 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



gCI.A327230 



PREFACE 

The present work is mainly designed to fit the needs 
of secondary pupils. It contains all the poems covered 
by the college entrance examinations and, in addition, a 
number of others illustrating typical phases of the poet's 
work. 

The editor once deemed it a virtue to send his pupils 
to the unabridged dictionary and other reference books 
for the meaning of strange words and allusions. Long 
experience has shown, however, that a majority of pupils 
must prepare their lessons without access to such books. 
Hence, the footnotes have been made sufficiently ample 
for a clear understanding of the language of the poems. 
The suggestive questions, most of which have been used 
in the editor's own classes, will help the pupil to grasp 
the dramatic side of the monologues and to appreciate 
the subtle delineation of character so typical of Brown- 
ing. 

Many authorities have been consulted in the prepara- 
tion of this edition, but the editor has been especially 
helped by Mrs. Orr's Life and Letters of Robert Brown- 
ing, Dowden's Robert Broivning, Sharp's Life of Robert 
Browning y Chesterton's Robert Browning, Corson's In- 
troduction to Browning, Brooke's Poetry of Robert 
Browning, and the Camberivell edition of the poems. 
He wishes to acknowledge with especial gratitude his in- 
debtedness to Professor Lucius A. Sherman of the Uni- 
versity of Nebraska, to whom he owes his first inspiration 

V 



VI PREFACE 

for the careful study of Browning. The suggestive 
questions follow Professor Sherman's well-known plan, 
and he has given the editor valuable criticism and ad- 
vice in connection with their preparation. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction ^ 

I Browning the Man 9 

II Browning the Poet 18 

III Critical Comments 28 

IV Chronological Table 33 

V Bibliography 35 

Select Poems 37 

How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix * 37 

Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kadr 40 

-Incident of the French Camp * 41 

.. The Pied Piper of Hamelin * 43 

. Herve Kiel* 53 

Pheidippides * 60 

The Patriot . 69 

Instans Tyrannus * 70 

^^he Lost Leader * 73 

Cavalier Tunes * 75 

My Last Duchess * 78 

Count Gismond 80 

Home-Thoughts, from the Sea * 85 

Home-Thoughts, from Abroad * 85 

^'De Gustibus— " 86 

Songs from "Pippa Passes" 88 

The Boy and the Angel * 90 

Up at a Villa — Down in the City * 94 

* Required by the College Entrance Examinations. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Italian in England 98 

Tp^iMemorabilia 104 

Evelyn Hope 104 

y-The Last Ride Together 106 

4 Prospice 110 

JU Epilogue to Asolando Ill 

Notes and Questions 113 

Suggestions to Teachers 134 

Index to Poems 137 



INTEODUCTION 



BROWNING THE MAN 

Eobert Browning was born at Camberwell, a suburb 
of London, on May 7, 1812. At the time of his birth, 
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Scott, and Charles Lamb were 
yet in their early forties, Byron had already written 
Childe Harold and The Giaour, and Shelley had just 
finished Queen Mab. '' While Browning was a boy in 
Camberwell," says Chesterton, '' Ruskin was solemnly 
visiting his solemn suburban aunts, Dickens was going 
to and fro in a blacking factory, and Keats had not yet 
become the assistant of a country surgeon." It was a 
notable period in English literature. 

Browning's childhood was a happy one. Camberwell 
was then a bit of real country, where there were still 
green fields and wooded heights commanding wide- 
spread views. On holiday afternoons Robert particu- 
larly loved to seek the shade of three noble elms on a 
neighboring hill, where he would lie for hours, dream- 
ing and looking toward the distant city. His father, 
though a successful clerk in the Bank of England, was at 
heart a poet. He was a wide reader and was well-versed 
in classical literature and medieval lore. He was fond 
of walking to and fro in the twilight with little Robert 
in his arms, often soothing him to sleep by humming bits 

9 



10 INTRODUCTION 

of Anacreon in the original Greek. He always retained 
a youthfulness of heart that must have made him a de- 
lightful companion. The poet tells us how his father 
taught him the story of the siege of Troy, using the 
piled-up chairs and tables for the walls of the city, the 
family cat for Helen, and the two dogs for Agamemnon 
and Menelaus. Sometimes, too, he and a friend would 
personate Hector and Achilles, hacking away at each 
other with sham swords and shouting out passages from 
the Iliad. The elder Browning was also a great verse- 
maker and taught Robert all his Latin declensions by 
joining them in a grotesque rhyme. 

His mother, whom Carlyle called ^' the true type of 
a Scottish gentlewoman," was of a delicately strung 
temperament and was deeply religious. She had a great 
love for music, a passion which the son inherited. Once 
when his mother was playing softly in the twilight she 
was startled to hear a sound behind her. She turned, 
and the next moment Robert was in her arms, sobbing 
passionately, *^ Play! play!'' His sister also relates 
how Browning, while yet a very little boy, used to 
march around the dining-room table, shouting out 
metrical lines and beating the measure on the table. 

Mrs. Orr tells us that Robert was '^ a handsome, 
vigorous, fearless child, and soon developed an unresting 
activity and a fiery temper." He had a very energetic 
mind and was swift to learn. After spending the usual 
period in the dame-school he attended Mr. Ready's 
academy in Peckham, where he remained until he was 
fourteen. Here he won no prizes, but was a leader 
among his fellows. He organized a dramatic company 
and sometimes had his schoolmates act plays which he 
had written himself. No doubt the most important part. 



INTEODUCTION 11 

of his education was received at home. Its very atmos- 
phere fostered his love of music and painting. Every 
nook and corner of the house was crammed with books. 
These Robert read eagerly, thus '' becoming early ac- 
quainted with subjects generally unknown to boys." 
Mrs. Orr gives us a most interesting list from the library, 
ranging from the first edition of Robinson Crusoe to the 
works of Voltaire. 

The future poet fell first under the influence of Byron 
and at the age of twelve had already produced a small 
sheaf of Byronic verse, for which fortunately no pub- 
lisher was found. Forty years later Browning was 
greatly amused to get back his youthful manuscript, 
which all these years had been in the possession of a 
friend of the family. "When he was about fourteen years 
old Browning found a copy of Shelley's Queen Mob on a 
second-hand bookstand. He was so enthralled by it that 
he begged his mother to secure for him all the works of 
that poet. This she did, adding the three thin volumes 
of Keats, which had just been published. The poet tells 
us how, on the evening when he received the books, two 
nightingales strove against each other, one in the labur- 
num in his father's garden and the other in his neigh- 
bor's great copper beech. To his boyish imagination 
they seemed the spirits of the two poets whose verses he 
had just received. It was indeed a red-letter day in 
Browning's calendar, for it marked the dawn of a new 
poetic faith in him. Shelley was ever to him the '' Sun- 
treader, ' ' from whom he drew high inspiration. Brown- 
ing has beautifully voiced this feeling in his Memorabilia. 

About this time Browning left Mr. Ready's school and 
began to study at home under a tutor. In 1829 he en- 
tered University College, London. One of his class- 



12 INTRODUCTION 

mates says of him: " I well remember the esteem and 
regard in which he was held by his f elloAV-stiidents. He 
was a bright, handsome youth, with long black hair fall- 
ing over his shoulders." He was diligent in his studies, 
but was by no means a bookworm. He rode and danced 
and boxed and fenced like other healthy college boys. 
His attendance at the University, however, was brief. 
Soon after entering he discussed with his father the ad- 
visability of taking up WTiting as a profession. The 
father had been thwarted in his ow^n youthful ambition 
for a higher education and an artistic career; so you 
may be sure that he was ready to help Robert follow 
his own bent. Browning, having deliberately chosen to 
be a poet, told his father that he felt that it would be 
better for him ' ^ to see life in its best sense and cultivate 
the powers of the mind than to shackle himself at the 
very outset of his career by a laborious training foreign 
to that aim. ' ' The elder Browning agreed Avith his son, 
who therefore left the University to obtain his further 
education from travel and from contact with the w^orld 
of men and women. In later years, when asked whether 
he had been to Oxford or to Cambridge, he used to an- 
swer, '^ Italy was my University." 

In the autumn of 1832, when Browning was but 
twenty years of age, he finished a poem w^hich he called 
Pauline. At first its writing was kept a secret from all 
but his sister, but his aunt, hearing of it, said to him, 
^ ^ I hear, Robert, that you have written a poem ; here is 
the money to print it." Accordingly, it was issued 
anonymously early the next year. Although the poem 
was generally neglected by the reading public, it re- 
ceived some favorable notice from the critics and som_e 
years later gained him the attention and friendship of 



INTRODUCTION 13 

the eminent painter-poet, Rossetti. In the summer of 
1835 Paracelsus was published at his father's expense. 
This poem was scarcely more popular than Pauline had 
been, but its publication was of great importance to the 
young poet, since it gained for him the friendship of 
the eminent critic, John Forster, and of such notable 
literary men as Leigh Hunt, "Walter Savage Landor, 
Dickens, and Wordsworth. It also attracted the at- 
tention of the distinguished actor, Macready, who wrote 
in his Journal: '' Read Paracelsus, a work of great 
daring, starred with poetry of thought, feeling, and dic- 
tion, but occasionally obscure; the writer can scarcely 
fail to be a leading spirit of his time." At his solicita- 
tion Browning wrote for him a play, Strafford, which 
was produced at Covent Garden in 1837. Browning is 
described at this time as " slim, dark, and very hand- 
some, and just a trifle of a dandy, addicted to lemon- 
colored kid gloves and such things, quite the * glass of 
fashion and the mold of form.' But full of ambition, 
eager for success, eager for fame, and, what is more, de- 
termined to conquer fame and to achieve success." 

In the autumn of 1833 Browning had spent a few 
months in Russia, but of this trip there is no trace in 
his works, if we except the tragic poem, Ivan Ivanovitcli, 
published nearly forty years later. The time had now 
come for the poet to take his first course in " his Uni- 
versity " — Italy. In the summer of 1838 he sailed for 
that land, where he spent many happy days in Trieste, 
Venice, Padua, and " delicious Asolo." The last- 
named town is worthy of especial mention. It was '' his 
first love among Italian cities, ' ' and he has immortalized 
its name through Pippa Passes and Sordello, He visited 
it again and again with increasing affection, and 



14 INTRODUCTION 

dreamed in his old age of building there a snmmer 
home, which should be christened " Pippa's Tower." 
His dream was never fulfilled, for on the very night 
when the Municipality of Asolo voted to sell the poet 
the piece of land which he desired, his spirit took flight. 
Among the poems we are to study we shall find two 
memorials of this voyage. Home Thoughts from the Sea 
and Hoiv They Brought the Good Neivs from Ghent to 
Aix. The first of these was inspired by the poet's pas- 
sage through the Straits of Gibraltar, and the other was 
penciled on the fly-leaf of a book, while the vessel lay 
becalmed off the coast of Africa and the poet was yearn- 
ing for a gallop on his good horse, '' York." 

Browning's chief purpose in visiting Italy had been 
to gain warmth and color for the setting of his new 
work, Sordello, This poem, " the history of a soul by 
the soul's greatest historian," was published in the fol- 
lowing year. The coldness with which it was received 
by all but a narrow circle of choice spirits in no wise 
discouraged Browning, who now began to pour forth a 
steady stream of poetry, which w^as not to cease for 
nearly half a century. In 1841 Pippa Passes, the most 
exquisite of his dramatic poems, appeared. It formed 
the first number of Bells and Pomegranates, sl series of 
eight thin pamphlets published during the next six years. 
This series has a special interest for us, since it contains 
nine of the poems which we are to study. 

There now came into the poet's life a new force, 
destined to exert much influence upon his future work. 
He had often heard of the poet, Elizabeth Barrett, from 
their common friend, John Kenyon, and greatly admired 
her writings. Mr. Kenyon begged him to write to her 
and tell her how her poetry had impressed him, " for," 



IlSrTEODUCTION 15 

he said, ^^ she is a great invalid, and sees no one, but 
great souls jump at sympathy." Out of the ensuing 
correspondence grew an acquaintance and friendship, 
which soon ripened into love. But Miss Barrett was a 
couch-ridden invalid, closely hedged in by an eccentric 
father, who strenuously objected to any of his children's 
marrying. In the fall of 1846 her physician announced 
that the only hope of her recovery lay in her removal to 
Italy, but her father obstinately refused to permit her to 
go. The poet-lovers took what seemed the only alterna- 
tive and were quietly married without his consent. 
They went almost immediately to Italy, where they 
finally settled down in the fine old palace of Casa Guidi 
in Florence. Here the two poets worked together at 
their noble craft, the finest fruit of Mrs. Browning's 
genius being the so-called Sonnets from the Portuguese. 
In 1850 Browning published Christmas-Eve and Easter- 
Day. This was followed in 1855 by Men and Women, 
that group of noble poems which Rossetti called his 
'' Elixir of Life." Among these are several of the 
poems we are to study. 

Bayard Taylor, who visited the Brownings in 1851, 
has given us a vivid picture of the poet: " His dark 
hair was already streaked with gray about the temples. 
His complexion was fair, with perhaps the faintest olive 
tinge, eyes large, clear, and gray, nose strong and well- 
cut, mouth full and rather broad, and chin pointed 
though not prominent. His forehead broadened rapidly 
upward from the outer angle of the eye, slightly re- 
treating. ' ' 

The winter of 1855 found the Brownings in Paris, 
where Mrs. Browning in impaired health worked 
furiously on Aurora Leigh, which was published the 



16 INTRODUCTION 

following autumn with instant success. The next five 
years were a constant battle against encroaching disease, 
the end coming in the summer of 1861 at Casa Guidi, 
During these years Browning was the devoted companion 
and nurse of his wife and in consequence produced prac- 
tically nothing. 

After his wife 's death, Browning, feeling that he could 
no longer bear to live in Florence, returned to England. 
In 1864 he published Dramatis Personae, adding other 
speaking figures to his " fifty men and women " of 1855. 
Some years before the poet had found on a Florentine 
bookstand '' a square yellow book," which he had 
bought '' for eight-pence just." This volume, part 
print and part manuscript, contained the annotated 
story of the Franceschini murder case. ^^ When I had 
read the book," says Browning, '' my plan was at once 
settled. I went for a walk, gathered twelve pebbles 
from the road, and put them at equal distances on the 
parapet that bordered it. Those represented the twelve 
chapters into which the poem is divided, and I adhered 
to the arrangement to the last." It was eight years, 
however, before he published the first two numbers of 
The Ring and the Book, which Carlyle pronounced ' ' one 
of the most wonderful poems ever written. ' ' 

In America Browning had long had a wide circle of 
readers, and in grateful recognition of this had consented 
to the original publication of Gold Hair, Prospice, and 
Under the Cliff in the Atlantic Monthly, With the 
publication of Dramatis Personae there set in with the 
'' British public " a tide of popularity which has never 
subsided. For over three decades he had gone serenely 
on, equally unmindful of caustic criticism and cold neg- 
lect. ' ' I have taken my own course, ' ' he wrote in 1865, 



INTRODUCTION 17 

^^ pleasing myself, or aiming at doing so, and thereby, I 
hope, pleasing God." Now booksellers strove for the 
privilege of publishing The Ring and the Book, and 
" the R. B. who for six months did not sell one copy of 
his poems was now offered all the profits for the inci- 
dental advantages of his name." A second edition of 
the poem followed closely on the first, and nine new vol- 
umes of his poetry appeared in as many years. In 1871 
a publisher paid him a hundred guineas for the single 
ballad of Herve Biel, and sold fourteen hundred copies 
of it in the first five days after its issue! Oxford and 
Cambridge bestowed upon him degrees and he was twice 
offered the Lord Rectorship of St. Andrews University. 
Fate, more kind to him than to many another poet, had 
decreed that he should live on for more than twenty 
years, surrounded by an ever-widening circle of friends 
and hailed as one of the foremost literary men of his 
age. 

Browning kept up his work with astonishing vigor, 
his last poem, Asolando, being published on the day of 
his death, which occurred in the Rezzonico Palace, 
Venice, on the 12th of December, 1889. Shortly before 
the great bell of San Marco's began to toll the hour of 
ten, the dying poet asked if there were any news from 
England. His son read him a telegram telling of the 
great demand for his latest work. He smiled and mur- 
mured, '' How gratifying! " and with the last toll of 
San Marco's bell passed away. 

The Municipality of Venice granted civic honors to 
the dead poet. " Never in modern times," says Sharp, 
^ ' has Venice afforded a more impressive sight than those 
craped processional-gondolas following the high flower- 
strewn funeral barge through the thronged water-ways 
2 



18 INTRODUCTION 

and out across the lagoon to the desolate Isle of the 
Dead." Browning had expressed a wish to be buried 
in Italy beside his wife, but, in response to popular de- 
mand, he w^as finally laid to rest in Poets' Corner of 
Westminster Abbey to the music of his wife's poem, 
^' He giveth His beloved sleep." 

Asolo placed a mural tablet on the house which 
Browning had occupied, and Venice affixed a memorial 
tablet to the wall of the Rezzonico Palace bearing the 
following inscription: 

A 
ROBERTO BROWNING 

MORTO EN QUESTO PALAZZO 
IL 12 DICEMBRE 1889 

VENEZIE 
POSE 

Open my heart and you will see 
Graved inside of it, '' Italy.'' 

II 
BROWNING THE POET 

As you have seen. Browning won his way slowly with 
the public. Men of genius often have this experience 
when their work is distinctly different from that of their 
fellow artists. When Corot began to paint his marvelous 
landscapes his method was so startlingly different from 
that of his contemporaries, that his work met with no 
recognition except from a select few. Not till he was 
nearly seventy years of age did he gain even a small 



INTEODUCTION 19 

measure of the reward due to his genius. To-day he is 
acknowledged an inimitable master of landscape paint- 
ing. Like originality, both in matter and in manner of 
presentation, explains much of the early neglect of 
Browning. 

His subject matter often presents difficulty to the 
reader. He is interested in inner life rather than in 
outer action. He likes to reveal, as in a lightning flash, 
some great crisis in a human life, w^hen " contending 
forces come nobly to the grapple " and try the mettle 
of the soul. His typical attitude is indicated in his ded- 
ication to Sordello: '' My stress lay on incidents in the 
development of a soul; little else is worth study." 
Among poets he stands second only to Shakespeare in 
masterly delineation of character. At the same time 
he lacks Shakespeare's universality and often presents 
strange and even abnormal types, since these afford him 
the striking soul-situations he is so fond of depicting. 

In seeking expression for his conceptions of human 
character. Browning invented a new literary form, the 
dramatic monologue. This was his favorite mode of 
presentation, and most of the poems we shall study here 
are of this type. The dramatic monologue differs rad- 
ically from the soliloquy, in which some one merely 
thinks aloud in a rather absurd fashion. In the dra- 
matic monologue only one person speaks, but his speech 
reveals the presence of one or more listeners, and often 
suggests their actions and words. Sometimes the 
speaker, while revealing his own soul, portrays even 
more vividly the character of some other person, absent 
or present. For instance, in My Last Duchess the brief 
self -revealing story told by the cold proud Duke of Fer- 
rara calls up in the mind a most moving picture of his 



20 INTRODUCTION 

gentle flower-like Duchess. Again, in the Soliloquy of 
the Spanish Cloister the malignant monk reveals through 
his very jealousy and hatred the simplicity and kindli- 
ness of Brother Lawrence. 

When we read a drama or see it performed, the plot 
unfolds and the characters develop before our eyes. 
These dramatic monologues demand much more of the 
imagination, since we find in them neither plot nor de- 
velopment of character. They often begin most ab- 
ruptly, and upon the first reading the mind must hold 
many ideas in suspense till the very end. Take, for in- 
stance, our first poem, Hoiv they Brought the Good News 
from Ghent to Aix. The speaker is already well into his 
story. The opening words, 

I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris and he; 

I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three, 

leave us to fill in all details, with no help but the enig- 
matic title and sub-title. We must read on for some 
stanzas before we begin to grasp the situation. Upon 
a second reading, however, we visualize the speaker and 
his eager circle of listeners, and may see him as he stands 
with one hand on Roland's mane, while the horse reaches 
round his head for a petting. Again, in the Incident of 
the French Camp the poet leaves us to imagine the 
French veteran whose story begins so abruptly. As the 
poem grows familiar we may see him standing Napoleon- 
wise before the hearth of some old French inn or by 
some Canadian camp-fire, but of this there is no direct 
hint in the poem. We see, then, that most of these 
poems must be approached dramatically. We must 
visualize the speaker in the manner just suggested and 
must interpret his words accordingly. 



INTHODUCTION 21 

Professor Corson in his admirable analysis of My 
Last Duchess ^ has shown the effectiveness of this method 
of approach. He says of the closing lines of the poem: 

The last ten verses illustrate well the poet's skillful manage- 
ment of his diflBcult art- form. After the envoy has had his look 
at the portrait, the Duke, thinking it time to return to his guests, 
says, " Wiirt please you rise. We'll meet the company below, 
then." His next speech, which indicates what he has been talking 
about during the envoy's study of the picture, must be understood 
as uttered while they are moving toward the stairway. The next, 
" Nay, we'll go together down, sir," shows that they have reached 
the head of the stairway, and that the envoy has politely mo- 
tioned the Duke to lead the way down. This is implied in the 
" Nay." The last speech indicates that on the stairway is a win- 
dow which affords an outlook into the courtyard, where he calls 
the attention of the envoy to a Neptune, taming a sea-horse, cast 
in bronze for him by Claus of Innsbruck. The pride of the vir- 
tuoso is also implied in the word " though." 

While interest in the human soul is ever first with 
Browning, he is not blind to the beauties of the outer 
world. Among the selections you are to study you will 
find his love of Nature reflected in Home Thoughts from 
Abroad, in De Gustihus, and in one of Pippa's songs. 
His attitude toward Nature, however, differs from that 
of Burns and Wordsworth and Tennyson. All these 
see in Nature a human soul and give to her children 
human thoughts and feelings. To Browning Nature is 
a power apart from and above us, ^^ a form of the crea- 
tive joy of God.'' With her he feels himself " face to 
face with Infinitude." Burns has a keen sympathy for 
the untimely fate of the mountain daisy and sees in the 
little field-mouse a ^' poor earth-born companion and 
fellow-mortal." Wordsworth, wandering lonely, grows 

1 Introduction to Browning, pp. 86-90. 



22 INTRODUCTION 

gay in the jocund company of the daffodils, and his 
heart joins in their sprightly dance. Of this close fel- 
lowship with Nature's brood there is little in Bro waning. 
He, too, feels the joyous side of Nature, but he views 
her children apart. This attitude is illustrated by the 
following lines from Gerard de Lairesse in Parleyings 
with Certain People: 

Dance, yellows and whites and reds, 

Lead your gay orgy, leaves, stalks, and heads, 

Astir with wind in the tulip beds. 

There's sunshine; scarcely a wind at all 
Disturbs starved grass and daisies small 
On a certain mound by the churchyard wall. 

Daisies and grass be my heart's bedfellows. 

On the mound wind spares and sunshine mellows: 

Dance, you reds and whites and yellows. 

Observe that it is purely their association with the 
'' mound by the churchyard wall '' that leads the poet to 
take to his heart the '' starved grass and daisies small." 

In Browning, Nature, with a life of her own, is often 
but a background emphasizing some experience of a 
human soul. You will find this strikingly illustrated in 
Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came. Here the grass 

grew as scant as hair 
In leprosy; thin black blades pricked the mud 
Which underneath looked kneaded up with blood. 

Along the black eddies of the serpent river ' ' low scrubby 
alders kneeled," and '' drenched willows flung them 
headlong in a fit of mute despair. " A ' ' palsied oak ' ' 
gaped at the hero and a ' ' great black bird sailed past, ' ' 
while all around 



INTRODUCTION 23 

The hills, like giants at a hunting, lay 
Chin upon hand to see the game at bay. 

Eead the poem, and see how perfectly Nature is made 
to reflect the soul-crisis there presented. 

While Browning is especially fond of using Nature as 
a background for human passion, he has given us many 
exquisite bits of pure description. Most lovers of 
Browning know the verses from Meeting at Night: 

The gray seas and the long black land; 
And the yellow half-moon large and low; 
And the startled little weaves that leap 
In fiery ringlets from their sleep, 
As I gain the cove with pushing prow. 
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand. 

Scarcely inferior to this is the description of spring 
in Paracelsus: 

The grass grows bright, the bows are swoln with blooms 

Like chrysalids impatient for the air. 

The dorrs are busy, beetles run 

Along the furrows, ants make their ado; 

Above, birds fly in merry flocks, the lark 

Soars up and up, shivering for very joy; 

Afar the ocean sleeps; white fishing-gulls 

Flit where the strand is purple with its tribe of nestling limpets. 

Again, note the vivid color-tones of this tropical pic- 
ture from A Lover's Quarrel: 

Fancy the Pampas' sheen! 

Miles and miles of gold and green 

Where the sunflowers blow 

In a solid glow. 

And — to break now and then the screen — 

Black neck and eye-balls keen. 

Up a wild horse leaps between. 



24 INTRODUCTION 

Browning's great love of animals is evinced, not only 
by such poems as Tray, Through the Metidja to Abd-el- 
Kadr, and How They Brought the Good Neivs from 
Ghent to Aix, but by his vivid pictures of animal life. 
Speaking in the person of Karshish, the Arab physician, 
he tells how 

A black lynx snarled and pricked a tufted ear, 
and how a certain spider 

Weaves no web, watches on the ledge of tombs, 
Sprinkled with mottles on an ash-gray back. 

He makes Caliban tell of 

Yon otter, sleek- wet, black, lithe as a leech; 

Yon auk, one fire-eye in a ball of foam, 

That floats and feeds; a certain badger brown. 

He hath watched hunt with that slant white-wedge eye 

By moonlight; and the pie with the long tongue 

That pricks deep into oakwarts for a worm, 

And says a plain word when she finds her prize, 

But will not eat the ants. 

Note this picture from The Flight of the Duchess: 

Early in autumn, at first winter-warning, 
When the stag has to break with his foot, of a morning, 
A drinking-hole out of the fresh tender ice. 

And this from By the Fireside : 

A small bird sings 
All day long, save when a brown pair 
Of hawks from the wood float with wide wings 
Strained to a ball ; against noonday glare 
You count the streaks and rings. 



INTRODUCTION 25 

Stopford A. Brooke, in his exhaustive study of Brown- 
ing's treatment of Nature/ has shown that there was a 
well-defined development in this phase of his poetry. 
The critic points out that, during the first half of 
Browning's work, the love of Nature, though always less 
than his love of human nature, was closely intertwined 
with it, ** both linked together in a noble marriage." 
This was the time of Browning's best work, when he gave 
to the world his Dramatic Lyrics and Romances, his 
dramas. Dramatis Personae, and Men and Women, The 
Ring and the Book is starred with a few of Browning's 
finest pieces of natural description, but in the period fol- 
lowing its production his interest in human nature al- 
most entirely drove out his love of Nature. To this 
time belong such poems as Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau 
and The Red Cotton Night-Cap Country. Finally, as 
Brooke shows, the love of Nature returned with di- 
minished power, bringing with it some of the passion 
and music of his earlier verse. Illustrations of this new 
expression of his love of Nature may be found in La 
Saisiaz, in certain of the Dramatic Idyls, and in Gerard 
de LairessCy from which we have already quoted.^ 

Browning's keen sense of humor fiashes out repeatedly 
in his work, occasionally finding expression in complete 
poems. One of the best of these is Up at a Villa 
— Down in the City, which we are to study. Another 
admirable example is his Soliloquy of the Spanish 
Cloister, The grotesque turn which his humor oft^n 
takes is illustrated by his description of the queer old 
German wine-jug in Nationality in Drinks: 

1 The Poetry of Robert Browning, Chap. III. 

2 Page 22. 



26 INTRODUCTION 

Up jumped Tokay on our table, 

Like a pygmy castle-warder, 

Dwarfish to see, but stout and able, 

Arms and accoutrements all in order; 

And fierce he looked North, then, wheeling South, 

Blew with his bugle a challenge to Drouth, 

Cocked his flap-hat with the toss-pot feather, 

Twisted his thumb in his red moustache. 

Jingled his huge brass spurs together. 

Tightened his waist with its Buda sash, 

And then, with an impudence nought could abash. 

Shrugged his hump-shoulder, to tell the beholder. 

For twenty such knaves he should laugh but the bolder: 

And so, with his sword-hilt gallantly jutting, 

And dexter-hand on his haunch abutting. 

Went the little man, Sir Ausbruch, strutting. 

From first to last the dominant note of Browning's 
poetry is optimism. '' There never shall be one lost 
good." Evil itself may yield good; apparent defeat 
may conceal a sublime spiritual victory. The patriot 
who goes friendless to the scaffold with the consciousness 
of duty done may be safer than he who drops dead in 
the hour of triumph. The poet bids us 

welcome each rebuff 
That turns earth's smoothness rough. 
Each sting that bids, nor sit nor stand, but go. 

He holds that this life serves but to test and train us 
for a wider life beyond, is 

just a stuff 
To try the souFs strength on. 

Turn Browning's pages almost at random and you will 
see how this inspiring belief permeates his poetry, deep- 
ening and strengthening vrith the passing years. In his 



INTRODUCTION 27 

first poem, Pauline, his hero, realizing at the close of a 
life of disappointment that earth with its failures is but 
the threshold of a wider existence, says : 

Sun-treader, I believe in Gk)d and truth 
And love. . . . 



Know my last state is happy, free from doubt 
Or touch of fear. 

The dying Paracelsus, baffled in all his aspirations, 
yet feels secure of the future because, even in his basest 
moments, he has never ceased to aspire. He clasps the 
hand of his friend and says with his last breath: 

If I stoop 
Into a dark tremendous sea of cloud, 
It is but for a time; I press God's lamp 
Close to my breast; its splendor, soon or late 
Will pierce the gloom: I shall emerge one day. 

Later we find the same thought more sublimely ex- 
pressed in Apparent Failure. Thirty years after writ- 
ing Paracelsus the mature and world-wise Browning, 
musing over the gruesome suicides of the Paris morgue, 
apparently Earth's most hopeless failures, still can say: 

My owTi hope is, a sun will pierce 
The thickest cloud earth ever stretched; 
That, after Last, returns the First, 
Though a wide compass round be fetched; 
That what began best, can't end worst, 
Nor what God blest once, prove accurst. 

Turn now to Abt Vogler, '' the song of triumph of 
devout old age ": 

There never shall be one lost good! What was, shall live as 
before ; 



28 INTRODUCTION 

The evil is null, is naught, is silence implying sound; 

What was good shall be good, with, for evil, so much good more. 

On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven a perfect round. 

On the last day of the poet's earthly life his final 
trumpet call rang out to inspire the world. In the 
Epilogue to Asolando he sums up his creed, avowing 
himself 

One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward, 

Never doubted clouds would break, 
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, 
Here we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, 

Sleep to vxiTce, 

Of these lines Berdoe has well said : ' ^ Had he known 
when he wrote them that these were the last lines of his 
message to the world, that he who had for so many years 
urged men to ' strive and thrive — fight on ! ' would pass 
away as they were given to the world, would he have 
wished to close his life's work with braver, better, 
nobler words than these? All of Browning is here." 



Ill 

CRITICAL COMMENTS 

Shakespeare is not our poet, but the world's, 
Therefore on him no speech ! and brief for thee. 
Browning! Since Chaucer was alive and hale 
No man has walked along our rod with step 
So active, so inquiring eye, or tongue 
So varied in discourse. But warmer climes 
Give brighter plumage, stronger wing : the breeze 
Of Alpine heights thou playest with, borne on 



INTRODUCTION 29 

Beyond Sorrento and Amalfi, where 

The Siren waits thee, singing song for song. 

— Walter Savage Landor. 

I do heartily desire the spread of the study and the 
influence of Robert Browning; for, having lived some 
years with Chaucer and Shakespeare, to try to know 
what a Man is, and what a Poet is, I declare that Brown- 
ing is the manliest, the strongest, the lifefullest, the 
deepest, and the thoughtfullest living poet, the one most 
needing earnest study, and the one most worthy of it. 

— F. J. FURNIVALL. 

I take him to be the chief poet of our age: chief, be- 
cause he, more than any other, perceived the needs and 
yearnings of this restless period and set himself to sup- 
ply them. He never aimed at popularity, success was 
in no wise his ambition; he was content with the judg- 
ment of his peers and could afford to wait for the verdict 
of the populace. I hold him to be chief, also because he, 
of all modern writers, so largely possessed the prophetic, 
or seeing, power. This it is that places him far above 
more melodious-voiced songsters. — Edward Berdoe. 

Through all his works Browning speaks of Life. 
There is not a whine in all his poetry. The most des- 
picable character in his dramas never asks, '' Is life 
worth living? " To him who longs for death, he cries, 
^' Have you ever lived? "... Browning holds that 
when you strive toward work you grow toward God. If 
you try and fall short you have not tried in vain. Our 
efforts are all gain to the individual soul; seeking after 
love has eternal value. 



30 INTRODUCTION 

'^ There shall never be one lost good! What was shall 
live as before ; 
• ••••••• 

On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven a perfect 
round." 

— Hiram Corson. 

Robert Browning is unerring in every sentence he 
writes of the Middle Ages ; always vital, right, and pro- 
found ; so that in the matter of art . . . there is hardly 
a principle connected with the mediaeval temper, that 
he has not struck upon in those careless and too rugged 
rhymes of his. ... 

I know of no other piece of modern English, prose or 
poetry, in which there is so much told, as in these lines 
[The Bishop Orders His Tomb in St, Praxed's Church] 
of the Renaissance spirit, — its worldliness, inconsistency, 
pride, hypocrisy, ignorance of itself, love of art, of lux- 
ury, and of good Latin. It is nearly all that I said of 
the Central Renaissance in thirty pages of the Stones 
of Venice put into as many lines. Browning's being also 
the antecedent work. — Ruskin. 

The dust of the dead Keats and Shelley turned to 
flower seed in the brain of the young poet. . . . There 
has been nothing in the pastoral kind written so delight- 
fully as Pippa Passes since the days of the Jacobean 
dramatists. . . . The figure of Pippa herself, the un- 
conscious messenger of good spiritual tidings to so many 
souls in dark places, is one of the most beautiful that 
Browning has produced, and in at least one of the more 
serious scenes — that between Sebald and Ottima — he 
reaches a tragic height that places him on a level with 



INTRODUCTION 31 

the greatest modern dramatists. Of the lyrical inter- 
ludes and seed-pearls of song scattered through the 
scenes, it is a commonplace to say that nothing more ex- 
quisite or natural was ever written, or rather warbled. 

— Edmund Gosse. 

The great English poets who are supposed to have 
cared more for form than Browning did, cared less at 
least in this sense — that they w^ere content to use old 
forms so long as they were certain that they had new 
ideas. Browning, on the other hand, no sooner had a 
new idea than he tried to make a new form to express 
it. . . . If we study Browning honestly, nothing will 
strike us more than that he really created a large num- 
ber of quite novel and quite admirable artistic forms. 
. . . The Ring and the Book, for example, is an illus- 
tration of a departure in literary method — the method 
of telling the same story several times and trusting to 
the variety of human character to turn it into several 
different and equally interesting stories. Pippa Passes, 
to take another example, is a new and most fruitful 
form, a series of detached dramas, connected only by the 
presence of one fugitive and isolated figure. The inven- 
tion of these things is not merely like the writing of a 
good poem — it is something like the invention of the 
sonnet or the Gothic arch. The poet who makes them 
does not merely create himself — he creates other poets. 

— Gilbert K. Chesterton. 

The universe of what we call matter in all its forms, 
which is the definition of Nature as I speak of it here, is 
one form to Browning of the creative joy of God : we are 
another form of the same joy. Nor does Browning con- 



32 INTRODUCTION 

ceive, as "Wordsworth conceived, of any pre-established 
harmony between us and the natural w^orld, so that Hu- 
manity and Nature can easily converse and live together ; 
so that we can express our thoughts and emotions in 
terms of Nature ; or so that Nature can have, as it were, 
a human soul. That is not Browning's conception. . . . 

Nature is alive in Browning, but she is not humanized 
at all, nor at all at one with us. Tennyson does not 
make her alive, but he does humanize her. The other 
poets of the century do make her alive, but they har- 
monize her in one way or another with us. Browning 
is distinct from them all in keeping her quite divided 
from man. ... 

Nature, then, has a life of her own, her own joys and 
sorrows, or rather, only joy. . . . He did not impute a 
personality like ours to Nature, but he saw joy and rap- 
ture and play, even love, moving in everything; and 
sometimes he added to this delight she has in herself — 
and just because the creature was not human — a touch 
of elemental unmoral malice, a tricksome sportiveness 
like that of Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream. — Stqp- 
FORt) Brooke, The Poetry of Robert Broivning. 

Mr. Browning's genius is dramatic because it always 
expresses itself in the forms of real life, in the supposed 
experiences of men and women. These men and women 
are usually in a state of mental disturbance or conflict : 
indeed, they think much more than they act. But their 
thinking tends habitually to a practical result; and it 
keeps up our sense of their reality by clothing itself al- 
ways in the most practical and picturesque language 
which thought can assume. It has been urged that he 
does not sink himself in his characters as a completely 



INTRODUCTION 83 

dramatic writer should; and this argument must stand 
for what it is worth. His personality may in some de- 
gree be constructed from his works; it is, I think, gen- 
erally admitted, that that of Shakespeare cannot; and 
in so far as this is a test of a complete dramatist, Mr. 
Browning fails of being one. He does not sink himself 
in his men and women, for his sympathy with them is 
too active to admit of it. He not only describes their 
different modes of being, but defends them from their 
own point of view ; and it is natural that he should often 
select for this treatment characters with which he is al- 
ready disposed to sympathize. But his women are no 
less living and no less distinctive than his men; and he 
sinks his individuality at all times enough to interest 
us in the characters which are not akin to his own as 
much as in those which are. Even if it were otherwise, 
if his men and women were all variations of himself, as 
imagined under differences of sex, of age, of training, or 
of condition, he would still be dramatic in this essential 
quality, the only one which bears on our contention : that 
everything which, as a poet, he thinks or feels, comes 
from him in a dramatic, that is to say, a completely liv- 
ing form. — Mrs. Sutherland Orr. 

IV 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 

1812. Born at Camberwell, London. 

1829. Enters University College, London. 

1832. Writes Pauline, published in 1833. 

1833. Travels in Russia. 

1835. Paracelsus. 

1836. Porphyria and other poems in Monthly Repository. 

1837. Strafford, his first drama, produced at Covent Garden. 

3 



34 INTRODUCTION 

1838. Visits Italy. 

1840. Sordello. 

1841. Bells and Pomegranates, No. I, Pippa Passes. 

1842. Bells and Pomegranates, No. II, King Victor and King 

Charles; No. Ill, Dramatic Lyrics. 

1843. Bells and Pomegranates, No. IV, The Return of the Druses, 

a tragedy in five acts; No. V, A Blot on the 'Scutcheon, 
a tragedy in three acts. 

1844. Bells and Pomegranates, No. VI, Colombe's Birthday, a 

play in five acts. 
The Boy and the Angel and three other poems in Hood's 
Magazine. 

1845. Bells and Pomegranates, No. VII, Dramatic Lyrics and 

Romances. 

1846. Bells and Pomegranates, No. VIII, Luria and A Soul's 

Tragedy. 
Marries Elizabeth Barrett. 

1847. Establishes a home in Italy. 

1849. New edition of his poetical works. 

1850. Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day. 

1852. Introductory Essay to Shelley's Letters, 

1854. The Twins in Two Poems, the other being by Mrs. 

Browning. 

1855. Men and Women. 

1857. May and Death in The Keepsake. 

1863. Third edition of his poetical works. 

1864. Gold Hair, Prospice, and Under the Cliff in the Atlantic 

Monthly, 

Dramatis Personae. 

Fourth edition of his poetical works. 
1866. Edits his wife's poems. 
1868. New edition of his poetical works. 
1868-69. The Ring and the Book. 

1871. Herv^ Riel in the Cornhill Magazine. 
Baulastion's Adventure. 

Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau. 

1872. Fifine at the Fair. 

1872-74. First American edition of his works, reprinted by the 
Chicago and Alton R. R. from the latest English 
edition. A copy is in the British Museum. 



INTRODUCTION 35 

1873. Red Cotton Nightcap Country. 

1875. Aristophanes' Apologj\ 
The Inn Album. 

1876. Pacehiarotto and other Poems. 

1877. The Agamemnon of ^schylus. 

1878. La Saisiaz: The two Poets of Croisic. 
1879-80. Dramatic Idyls. 

1883. Jocoseria. 

1884. Ferishtah's Fancies. 

1887. Parleyings with Certain People of Importance. 
1889. Asolando. 

Dies at Venice. 

V 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I. EDITIONS 

Browning's Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition. 

(Houghton, Mifflin & Co., one volume.) 
The Poetical Works of Robert Browning. (The Macmillan Co., 

ten volumes. ) 
Robert Browning's Complete Poetical Works, Camberwell Edition 

— edited by Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clark. (Thomas 

Y. Crowell & Co., twelve volumes, excellently annotated.) 

II. AIDS TO INTERPRETATION 

An Introduction to the Study of Robert Brovming's Poetry, by 
Hiram Corson. 

An Introduction to the Poetry of Robert Browning, by W. J. 
Alexander. 

A Handbook to the Works of Robert Brouming, by Mrs. Suther- 
land Orr. 

Analytics of Literature, Chapters IV and XVI, by L. A. Sherman. 

Browning Cyclopcedia, by Edward Berdoe. 

III. BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM 
Life of Robert Browning, by William Sharp. 
Robert Browning, by C. H. Herford. 



36 INTRODUCTIOlSr 

Robert Broicning, by G. K. Chesterton. 

Robert Browning, by Edward Dowden. 

Robert Broivning; Personalia, by E. W. Gosse. 

Life and Letters of Robert Browning, by Mrs. Sutherland Orr. 

Browning's Message to his Times, by Edward Berdoe. 

The Poetry of Robert Browning, by Stopford A. Brooke. 

Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 

Literary Studies, Vol. II, by Walter Bagehot. 

Browning Society Papers. 

Bibliography, in Sharp's Life of Browning, 



HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM 

GHENT TO AIX 

I SPRANG to the stirrup, and Joris, and he ; 
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three ; 
'' Good speed! " cried the watch, as the gate-bolts un- 
drew; 
' ' Speed ! ' ' echoed the wall to us galloping through ; 
Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, 
And into the midnight we galloped abreast. 

Not a word to each other ; we kept the great pace 
Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place ; 
I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight. 
Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right, 10 
Rebuckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit, 
Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit. 

'T was moonset at starting; but while we drew near 
Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear ; 
At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see ; 
At Diiffeld, 'twas morning as plain as could be; 

Ghent: A town in Belgium on the Scheldt River. 

5. postern: A small gate, or door, beside the large gate in a 
fortified place. 

10. pique: Peak or point; here, the pommel of the saddle. 

14. Lokeren: A town about twelve miles from Ghent. This 
town and the others mentioned in the poem lie along the way from 
Ghent to Aix, at intervals of from twelve to twenty-four miles, 
the whole distance being over ninety miles. 

37 



38 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

And from Mecheln church-steeple we heard the half- 
chime, 
So Joris broke silence with, ' ^ Yet there is time ! ' ' 

At Aershot, up leaped of a sudden the sun. 

And against him the cattle stood black every one, 20 

To stare through the mist at ug galloping past. 

And I saw my stout galloper Roland at last, 

"With resolute shoulders, each butting away 

The haze, as some bluff river headland its spray : 

And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent back 
For my voice, and the other pricked out on his track ; 
And one eye 's black intelligence, — ever that glance 
'er its white edge at me, his own master, askance ! 
And the thick heavy spume-flakes which aye and anon 
His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on. 30 

By Hasselt, Dirck groaned ; and cried Joris, ^' Stay spur ! 
Your Roos galloped bravely, the fault's not in her, 
We '11 remember at Aix ' ' — for one heard the quick 

wheeze 
Of her chest, saw the stretched neck and staggering 

knees. 
And sunk tail, and horrible heave of the flank, 
As down on her haunches she shuddered and sank. 

So, we were left galloping, Joris and I, 

Past Looz and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky ; 

17. Mecheln church-steeple: The church-steeple is the lofty 
(324 feet) though unfinished tower of the Cathedral of St. Rom- 
bold. — Rolfe. 

29. spume-flakes: Foam-flakes. 

31. Hasselt: A town about eighty miles from Ghent. Had 
not Roos *' galloped bravely " ? 

32. Roos: Dutch for " Rose." 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 39 

The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh, 
'Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like 
chaff; 40 

Till over by Dalhem a dome-spire sprang white, 
And ' ' Gallop, ' ' gasped Joris, ' ' for Aix is in sight ! ' ' 

'' How they'll greet us ! '' — and all in a moment his roan 
Rolled neck and croup over, lay dead as a stone ; 
And there was my Roland to bear the whole weight 
Of the news which alone could save Aix from her fate, 
With his nostrils like pits full of blood to the brim, 
And with circles of red for his eye-sockets' rim. 

Then I cast loose my buff-coat, each holster let fall. 
Shook off both my jack-boots, let go belt and all, 50 

Stood up in the stirrup, leaned, patted his ear. 
Called my Roland his pet-name, my horse without peer; 
Clapped my hands, laughed and sang, any noise, bad or 

good, 
Till at length into Aix Roland galloped and stood. 

And all I remember is — friends flocking round 
As I sat with his head 'twixt my knees on the ground ; 
And no voice but was praising this Roland of mine. 
As I poured down his throat our last measure of wine, 
Which (the burgesses voted by common consent) 
Was no more than his due who brought good news from 
Ghent. 60 

46. her fate: The poet imagines Aix in a state of siege and on 
the verge of falling. See line 28. 

49. buif-coat: A stout coat of buff leather, worn by soldiers. 

50. jack-boots: Boots reaching above the knee; worn in the 
17th century by soldiers. 



40 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 



THROUGH THE METIDJA TO ABD-EL-KADR 

As I ride, as I ride, 

With a full heart for my guide. 

So its tide rocks my side, 

As I ride, as I ride, 

That, as I were double-eyed, 

He, in whom our Tribes confide, 

Is descried, ways untried. 

As I ride, as I ride. 

As I ride, as I ride, 

To our Chief and his Allied, 10 

Who dares chide my heart's pride 

As I ride, as I ride? 

Or are witnesses denied — 

Through the desert waste and wide 

Do I glide unespied 

As I ride, as I ride? 

As I ride, as I ride. 

When an inner voice has cried, 

The sands slide, nor abide 

(As I ride, as I ride) 20 

'er each visioned homicide 

That came vaunting (has he lied?) 

To reside — where he died, 

As I ride, as I ride. 

As I ride, as I ride. 

Ne'er has spur my swift horse plied, 

Hetidja: An extensive plain commencing on the eastern side 
of the Bay of Algiers and stretching inland to the south and west, 
5. As: As is here equivalent to as if. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 41 

Yet his hide, streaked and pied, 

As I ride, as I ride. 

Shows where sw^eat has sprung and dried, 

— Zebra-footed, ostrich-thighed — 30 

How has vied stride with stride 

As I ride, as I ride! 

As I ride, as I ride. 

Could I loose what Fate has tied, 

Ere I pried, she should hide 

(As I ride, as I ride) 

All that's meant me — satisfied 

When the Prophet and the Bride 

Stop veins I'd have subside 

As I ride, as I ride ! 40 



INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP 

You know, we French stormed Ratisbon : 

A mile or so away. 
On a little mound, Napoleon 

Stood on our storming-day ; 
With neck out-thrust, you fancy how. 

Legs wide, arms locked behind. 
As if to balance the prone brow 

Oppressive wdth its mind. 

30. Zebra-footed, ostrich-thighed: Explain. 

38. the Prophet and his Bride: Mohammed and his wife, Aye- 
sha. Mohammed held that she would still be his wife in Paradise. 

1. Ratisbon: An Austrian town, stormed by Napoleon in 1809. 
Its German name is Regensburg. 

7. prone: bending forward. 



42 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

Just as perhaps he mused ' ' My plans 

That soar, to earth may fall, 10 

Let once my army-leader Lannes 

Waver at yonder wall, ' ' — 
Out 'twixt the battery-smokes there flew 

A rider, bound on bound 
Full-galloping; nor bridle drew 

Until he reached the mound. 

Then off there flung in smiling joy, 

And held himself erect 
By just his horse 's mane, a boy : 

You hardly could suspect — 20 

(So tight he kept his lips compressed, 

Scarce any blood came through) 
You looked twice ere you saw his breast 

Was all but shot in two. 

*' Well," cried he, ^' Emperor, by God's grace 

We've got you Ratisbon! 
The Marshal's in the market-place, 

And you 11 be there anon 
To see your flag-bird flap his vans 

Where I, to heart's desire, 30 

Perched him ! ' ' The chief 's eye flashed ; his plans 

Soared up again like fire. 

The chief 's eye flashed ; but presently 

Softened itself, as sheathes 
A film the mother-eagle's eye 

When her bruised eaglet breathes ; 



11. Lannes: One of Napoleon's marshals. 

29. vans: Wings. 

34. What is the subject of sheathes? 



* SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 43 

* ^ You 're wounded ! " '' Nay, ' ' the soldier 's pride 

Touched to the quick, he said: 
' ' I 'm killed. Sire ! ' ' And his chief beside, 

Smiling the boy fell dead. 40 



THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN 
A Chad's Story 

{Written for, and inscribed to, W, M, the Younger) 



Hamelin Town 's in Brunswick, 
By famous Hanover city; 

The river Weser, deep and wide, 

Washes its wall on the southern side; 

A pleasanter spot you never spied; 
But, when begins my ditty. 

Almost five hundred years ago, 

To see the townsfolk suffer so 
From vermin, was a pity. 

II 

Rats ! 10 

They fought the dogs and killed the cats, 

And bit the babies in the cradles. 
And ate the cheeses out of the vats, 

And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles. 
Split open the kegs of salted sprats. 
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats, 
And even spoiled the women's chats 

By drowning their speaking 

With shrieking and squeaking 
In fifty different sharps and flats. 20 

1. Hamelin: A town of Hanover, Prussia. 



44 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

m 

At last the people in a body 

To the Town Hall came flocking: 
^ ' 'Tis clear, ' ' cried they, ' ' our Mayor 's a noddy ; 

And as for our Corporation — shocking 
To think we buy gowns lined with ermine 
For dolts that can't or won't determine 
What's best to rid us of our vermin! 
You hope, because you're old and obese, 
To find in the furry civic robe ease ? 
Rouse up, sirs! Give your brains a racking 30 

To find the remedy we're lacking, 
Or, sure as fate, we'll send you packing! " 
At this the Mayor and Corporation 
Quaked with a mighty consternation. 

IV 

An hour they sat in council; 

At length the Mayor broke silence : 
* * For a guilder I 'd my ermine gown sell, 

I wish I were a mile hence ! 
It's easy to bid one rack one's brain — 
I'm sure my poor head aches again, 40 

I've scratched it so, and all in vain. 
Oh for a trap, a trap, a trap ! ' ' 
Just as he said this, what should hap 
At the chamber-door but a gentle tap ? 
" Bless us," cried the Mayor, " what's that? " 
(With the Corporation as he sat. 
Looking little, though wondrous fat; 
Nor brighter was his eye, nor moister 

28. obese: Exceedingly fat. 

37. guilder: The monetary unit of Holland, value about forty 
cents. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 45 

Than a too-long-opened oyster, 

Save when at noon his paunch grew mutinous 50 

For a plate of turtle, green and glutinous) 

' ' Only a scraping of shoes on the mat ? 

Anything like the sound of a rat 

Makes my heart go pit-a-pat! " 



*' Come in! '' — the Mayor cried, looking bigger: 

And in did come the strangest figure ! 

His queer long coat from heel to head 

Was half of yellow and half of red, 

And he himself was tall and thin, 

With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin, 60 

With light loose hair, yet swarthy skin, 

No tuft on cheek, nor beard on chin, 

But lips where smiles went out and in; 

There was no guessing his kith and kin : 

And nobody could enough admire 

The tall man and his quaint attire. 

Quoth one: '' It's as my great-grandsire. 

Starting up at the Trump of Doom's tone. 

Had walked this way from his painted tombstone! 



>) 



VI 

He advanced to the council-table: 70 

And, " Please your honors," said he, ''I'm able, 

By means of a secret charm, to draw 

All creatures living beneath the sun, 

That creep or swim or fly or run. 

After me so as you never saw! 

And I chiefly use my charm 

On creatures that do people harm, , 

68. Trump of Doom: The trumpet of the Day of Judgment. 



46 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

The mole and toad and newt and viper; 

And people call me the Pied Piper." 

(And here they noticed round his neck 80 

A scarf of red and yellow stripe, 

To match with his coat of the self -same cheque; 

And at the scarf's end hung a pipe; 

And his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying, 

As if impatient to be playing 

Upon this pipe, as low it dangled 

Over his vesture so old-fangled.) 

'' Yet," said he, '^ poor piper as I am. 

In Tartary I freed the Cham, 

Last June, from his huge swarms of gnats ; 90 

I eased in Asia the Nizam 

Of a monstrous brood of vampire-bats : 

And as for what your brain bewilders. 

If I can rid your town of rats 

Will you give me a thousand guilders? " 

*^ One? fifty thousand! " — was the exclamation 

Of the astonished Mayor and Corporation. 

VII 

Into the street the Piper stept. 

Smiling first a little smile; 
As if he knew what magic slept 100 

In his quiet pipe the while; 
Then, like a musical adept, 
To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled, 
And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled, 
Like a candle-flame where salt is sprinkled ; 

79. Pied: Mottled, of variegated colors. 
89. Cham: Khan, the ruler of Tartary. 

91. Nizam: The native ruler of Hyderabad, India. 

92. vampire-bats: Blood-sucking bats. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 47 

And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered, 

You heard as if an army muttered; 

And the muttering grew to a grumbling; 

And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling; 

And out of the houses the rats came tumbling. 110 

Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats. 

Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats, 

Grave old plodders, gay young friskers. 

Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins, 
Cocking tails and pricking whiskers, 

Families by tens and dozens. 
Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives — 
Followed the Piper for their lives. 
From street to street he piped advancing, 
And step for step they followed dancing, 120 

Until they came to the river Weser, 
Wherein all plunged and perished! 
— Save one who, stout as Julius Caesar, 
Swam across and lived to carry 
(As he, the manuscript he cherished) 
To Rat-land home his commentary: 
Which was, '' At the first shrill notes of the pipe, 
I heard a sound as of scraping tripe. 
And putting apples, wondrous ripe. 
Into a cider-press's gripe: 130 

And a moving away of pickle-tub-boards, 
And a leaving ajar of conserve-cupboards, 
And a drawing the corks of train-oil-flasks, 
And a breaking the hoops of butter-casks : 

123-125. An allusion to a legend which Froude pronounces 
" more absurd than legends usually are." According to this story, 
Julius Caesar, when compelled to abandon his sinking ship at the 
siege of Alexandria, held the manuscript of his Commenta/ries 
above the water with one hand and swam with the other. 



48 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

And it seemed as if a voice 

(Sweeter far than by harp or by psaltery 

Is breathed) called out, ' Oh rats, rejoice! 

The world is grown to one vast drysaltery! 

So munch on, crunch on, take your nuncheon, 

Breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon! ' 140 

And just as a bulky sugar-puncheon, 

All ready staved, like a great sun shone 

Glorious scarce an inch before me, 

Just as methought it said, ' Come, bore me! ' 

— I found the Weser rolling o'er me." 

VIII 

You should have heard the Hamelin people 

Einging the bells till they rocked the steeple. 

'' Go," cried the Mayor, '^ and get long poles, 

Poke out the nests and block up the holes ! 

Consult with carpenters and builders, 150 

And leave in our town not even a trace 

Of the rats! " — when suddenly, up the face 

Of the Piper perked in the market-place, 

With a, * ' First, if you please, my thousand guilders ! 



?> 



IX 

A thousand guilders! The Mayor looked blue; 

So did the Corporation too. 

For council dinners made rare havoc 

"With Claret, Moselle, Vin-de-Grave, Hock; 

And half the money would replenish 

Their cellar's biggest butt with Ehenish. 160 

To pay this sum to a wandering fellow 

With a gypsy coat of red and yellow ! 

139. nuncheon: A piece of food sufficient for a luncheon. 
158. Claret, Moselle, . . . Rhenish: Varieties of wine. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 49 

^ ^ Beside, ' ' quoth the Mayor with a knowing wink, 

' ' Our business was done at the river 's brink ; 

We saw with our eyes the vermin sink, 

And what's dead can't come to life, I think. 

So, friend, we're not the folks to shrink 

From the duty of giving you something for drink, 

And a matter of money to put in your poke ; 

But as for the guilders, what we spoke 170 

Of them, as you very well know, was in joke. 

Beside, our losses have made us thrifty. 

A thousand guilders! Come, take fifty! '' 



The Piper's face fell, and he cried, 

" No trifling! I can't wait, beside! 

I've promised to visit by dinner-time 

Bagdat, and accept the prime 

Of the Head-Cook's pottage, all he's rich in, 

For having left, in the Caliph's kitchen, 

Of a nest of scorpions no survivor : 180 

With him I proved no bargain-driver, 

With you, don't think I'll bate a stiver! 

And folks who put me in a passion 

May find me pipe after another fashion. 



yy 



XI 

'' How? " cried the Mayor, ''d'ye think I brook 

Being worse treated than a Cook? 

Insulted by a lazy ribald 

With idle pipe and vesture piebald? 

179. Caliph: The spiritual and civil head of a Mohammedan 
state. 

182. stiver: A Dutch coin of a value of about two cents. 
187. ribald: A coarse and vulgar person. 
4 



50 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

You threaten us, fellow? Do your worst, 

Blow your pipe there till you burst ! ' ' 190 

XII 

Onee more he stept into the street, 

And to his lips again 
Laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane; 

And ere he blew three notes (such sweet 
Soft notes as yet musician's cunning 

Never gave the enraptured air) 
There was a rustling that seemed like a bustling 
Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling; 
Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering. 
Little hands clapping and little tongues chattering, 200 
And, like fowls in a farm-yard when barley is scattering, 
Out came the children running. 
All the little boys and girls, 
With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls, 
And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls. 
Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after 
The wonderful music with shouting and laughter. 

XIII 

The Mayor was dumb, and the Council stood 

As if they were changed into blocks of wood, 

Unable to move a step, or cry 210 

To the children merrily skipping by, 

— Could only follow with the eye 

That joyous crowd at the Piper's back. 

But how the Mayor was on the rack. 

And the wretched Council's bosoms beat, 

As the Piper turned from the High Street 

To where the Weser rolled its waters 

Right in the way of their sons and daughters! 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 51 

However, he turned from South to West, 

And to Koppelberg Hill his steps addressed, 220 

And after him the children pressed; 

Great was the joy in every breast. 

' ' He never can cross that mighty top ! 

He's forced to let the piping drop, 

And we shall see our children stop ! ' ' 

When, lo, as they reached the mountain-side, 

A wondrous portal opened wide, 

As if a cavern were suddenly hollowed; 

And the Piper advanced, and the children followed. 

And when all were in, to the very last, 230 

The door in the mountain-side shut fast. 

Did I say all ? No ! One was lame. 

And could not dance the whole of the way ; 

And in after years, if you would blame 

His sadness, he was used to say, — 

^' It's dull in our town since my playmates left! 

I can't forget that I'm bereft 

Of all the pleasant sights they see, 

Which the Piper also promised me. 

For he led us, he said, to a joyous land, 240 

Joining the town and just at hand, 

Where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew 

And flowers put forth a fairer hue, 

And everything was strange and new; 

The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here. 

And their dogs outran our fallow deer, 

And honey-bees had lost their stings. 

And horses were born with eagles' wings: 

And just as I became assured 

My lame foot would be speedily cured, 250 

The music stopped and I stood still, 

And found myself outside the hill, 



52 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 



Left alone against my will, 

To go now limping as before, 

And never hear of that country more! 



>> 



XIV 

Alas, alas for Hamelin ! 

There came into many a burgher's pate 

A text which says that Heaven's gate 

Opes to the rich at as easy a rate 
As the needle's eye takes a camel in! 260 

The Mayor sent East, West, North and South, 
To offer the Piper, by word of mouth, 

Wherever it was men's lot to find him, 
Silver and gold to his heart's content, 
If he'd only return the way he went, 

And bring the children behind him. 
But when they saw 'twas a lost endeavor. 
And Piper and dancers were gone forever, 
They made a decree that lawyers never 

Should think their records dated duly 270 

If, after the day of the month and year, 
These words did not as well appear, 
" And so long after what happened here 

On the twenty-second of July, 
Thirteen hundred and seventy-six: " 
And the better in memory to fix 
The place of the children's last retreat, 
They called it, the Pied Piper 's Street — 
Where any one playing on pipe or tabor 
Was sure for the future to lose his labor. 280 

Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern 

To shock with mirth a street so solemn; 
But opposite the place of the cavern 

They wrote the story on a column. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 53 

And on the great church-window painted 

The same, to make the world acquainted 

How their children were stolen away, 

And there it stands to this very day. 

And I must not omit to say 

That in Transylvania there's a tribe 290 

Of alien people who ascribe 

The outlandish ways and dress 

On which their neighbors lay such stress, 

To their fathers and mothers having risen 

Out of some subterraneous prison 

Into which they were trepanned 

Long time ago in a mighty band 

Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land, 

But how or why, they don't understand. 

XV 

So, Willy, let me and you be wipers 300 

Of scores out with all men — especially pipers! 
And, whether they pipe us free from rats or from mice. 
If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise! 



HERVE KIEL 



On the sea and at the Hogue, sixteen hundred ninety-two, 
Did the English fight the French, — woe to France ! 

290. Transylvania: A province of Austria. 

296. trepanned: Trapped. 

1. The Ho^e: A cape on the northern shore of France, just 
opposite the Isle of Wight. Here, on May 19, 1692, the French 
fleet was defeated in a running fight by the combined fleets of the 
English and the Dutch, 



54 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

And, the thirty-first of May, helter-skelter through the 

blue 
Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks 

pursue, 
Came crowding ship on ship to Saint Malo on the 

Ranee, 
With the English fleet in view. 

n 

'T was the squadron that escaped, with the victor in full 
chase ; 
First and foremost of the drove, in his great ship, 
Damf reville ; 
Close on him fled, great and small. 
Twenty-two good ships in all ; 10 

And they signalled to the place 
' ^ Help the winners of a race ! 

Get us guidance, give us harbor, take us quick — 

or, quicker still. 
Here's the English can and will ! 



j> 



m 

Then the pilots of the place put out brisk and leapt on 

board ; 
^' Why, what hope or chance have ships like these 

to pass? " laughed they: 
^* Rocks to starboard, rocks to port, all the passage 

scarred and scored, 

3. helter-skelter: What impression of the flight does this word 
give? 

4. Note the effect of the simile used. 

5. St. Malo: A town on a small island at the mouth of the 
river Ranee, in Brittany. 

17. What does the poet mean by saying the passage is " scarred 
and scored '^ ? 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 55 

Shall the ' Formidable ' here with her twelve and eighty 
guns 
Think to make the river-mouth by the single narrow 
way, 
Trust to enter where 't is ticklish for a craft of twenty 
tons, 20 

And with flow at full beside ? 
Now, 't is slackest ebb of tide. 
Eeach the mooring? Rather say, 
While rock stands or water runs, 
Not a ship will leave the bay ! ' ' 

IV 

Then was called a council straight. 

Brief and bitter the debate : 

*' Here's the English at our heels; would you have them 

take in tow 
All that's left us of the fleet, linked together stern and 

bow. 
For a prize to Plymouth Sound? 30 

Better run the ships aground ! ' ' 

(Ended Damfreville his speech). 
'^ Not a minute more to wait! 
Let the Captains all and each 

Shove ashore, then blow up, burn the vessels on the 
beach ! 
France must undergo her fate. 

18. twelve and eighty: A literal translation of the French 
quatre-vingt-douze, 

22. slackest ebb of tide: The tide at St. Malo rises forty-five 
or fifty feet.— Rolfe. 

30. Plymouth: An important naval station in the southwest 
of England. 



56 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

V 

'* Give the word! " But no such word 
Was ever spoke or heard ; 

For up stood, for out stepped, for in struck amid 
all these 
— A Captain ? A Lieutenant ? A Mate — first, second, 
third? 40 

No such man of mark, and meet 
With his betters to compete ! 

But a simple Breton sailor pressed by Tourville 
for the fleet, 
A poor coasting-pilot he, Herve Riel the Croisickese. 

VI 

And '' What mockery or malice have we here? " cries 
Herve Eiel: 
'* Are you mad, you Malouins? Are you cowards, 
fools, or rogues? 
Talk to me of rocks and shoals, me who took the sound- 
ings, tell 
On my fingers every bank, every shallow, every swell 
'Twixt the offing here and Greve where the river 
disembogues ? 

43. pressed : Forced to serve. 

Tourville: A French admiral, who two years before had de- 
feated the English and Dutch fleets, and chased the English fleet 
to the very mouth of the Thames. A year after the battle of La 
Hogue he triumphed over the English at Cape St. Vincent. 

44. Croisickese : A dweller in Le Croisic, a small fishing village 
on the Loire. 

46. Malouins: Inhabitants of St. Malo. There was evidently 
no love lost between the pilots of these towns. 

47. How are "soundings" taken? 

49. offing: That part of the visible sea which is beyond anchor- 
age-ground. In the ofling the water is deep and there is no need of 
a pilot. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 57 

Are you bought by English gold? Is it love the lying's 
for? 50 

Morn and eve, night and day, 
Have I piloted your bay. 
Entered free and anchored fast at the foot of Solidor. 
Burn the fleet and ruin France ? That were worse 
than fifty Hogues ! 
Sirs, they know I speak the truth! Sirs, be- 
lieve me there 's a way ! 
Only let me lead the line. 

Have the biggest ship to steer. 
Get this ^ Formidable ' clear, 
Make the others follow mine, 

And I lead them, most and least, by a passage I know 
well, 60 

Eight to Solidor past Greve, 

And there lay them safe and sound ; 
And if one ship misbehave, 

— Keel so much as grate the ground, 
Why, I Ve nothing but my life, — here 's my head ! ' ' cries 
Herve Kiel. 



vn 

Not a minute more to wait. 

^ ' Steer us in, then, small and great ! 

Take the helm, lead the line, save the squadron! " 
cried its chief. 
Captains, give the sailor place ! 

He is Admiral, in brief. 70 

Still the north- wind, by God 's grace ! 
See the noble fellow's face 
As the big ship, with a bound, 
Clears the entry like a hound. 



58 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

Keeps the passage as its inch of way were the wide sea's 
profound ! 
See, safe through shoal and rock, 
How they follow in a flock, 
Not a ship that misbehaves, not a keel that grates the 
ground. 
Not a spar that comes to grief ! 
The peril, see, is past, 80 

All are harbored to the last. 
And just as Herve Kiel hollas ** Anchor! " — sure as 

fate. 
Up the English come — too late ! 

VIII 

So, the storm subsides to calm : 

They see the green trees wave 

On the heights overlooking Greve. 
Hearts that bled are stanched with balm. 
^^ Just our rapture to enhance. 

Let the English rake the bay, 
Gnash their teeth and glare askance 90 

As they cannonade away ! 
'Neath rampired Soli dor pleasant riding on the Ranee ! ' ' 
How hope succeeds despair on each Captain's counte- 
nance ! 
Out burst all with one accord, 

'' This is Paradise for Hell! 

Let France, let France 's King 
Thank the man that did the thing ! " 
What a shout, and all one word, 

^' Herve Riel! " 
As he stepped in front once more, 100 

75. profound: Latin, profundus, deep, from pro, forth, and 
fundus, bottom. Here, fathomless depth. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 59 

Not a symptom of surprise 
In the frank blue Breton eyes, 
Just the same man as before. 

IX 

Then said Damfreville, ^' My friend, 
I must speak out at the end, 

Though I find the speaking hard. 
Praise is deeper than the lips: 
You have saved the King his ships, 

You must name your own reward. 
'Faith, our sun was near eclipse ! 110 

Demand whatever you will, 
France remains your debtor still. 

Ask to heart's content and have! or my name's not 
Damfreville. ' ' 



Then a beam of fun outbroke 
On the bearded mouth that spoke. 
As the honest heart laughed through 
Those frank eyes of Breton blue : 
^' Since I needs must say my say. 

Since on board the duty's done. 

And from Malo Roads to Croisic Point, what is it 
but a run?— 120 

Since 't is ask and have, I may — 

Since the others go ashore — 
Come ! A good whole holiday ! 

Leave to go and see my wife, whom I call the Belle 
Aurore! " 

That he asked and that he got, — nothing more. 

124. BeUe Aurore: Beautiful Aurora. 



60 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

XI 

Name and deed alike are lost : 
Not a pillar nor a post 

In his Croisic keeps alive the feat as it befell; 
Not a head in white and black 

On a single fishing-smack, 130 

In memory of the man but for whom had gone to wrack 

All that France saved from the fight whence Eng- 
land bore the bell. 
Go to Paris : rank on rank 

Search the heroes flung pell-mell 
On the Louvre, face and flank ! 

You shall look long enough ere you come to Herve 
Kiel. 
So, for better and for worse, 
Herve Riel, accept my verse ! 
In my verse, Herve Riel, do thou once more 
Save the squadron, honor France, love thy wife the 
Belle Aurore ! 140 



PHEIDIPPIDES 

XaipcT€, VLKwfxev : 

First I salute this soil of the blessed, river and rock! 
Gods of my birthplace, dsemons and heroes, honor to all ! 

134. heroes flung peU-meU, etc. Allusion is here made to the 
historical portraits in the Louvre, the celebrated art gallery of 
France. 

Xatpcre, viKaifxeu: "Rejoice, we conquer." After Marathon this 
was the usual Greek form of salutation. 

2. daemons: According to the Greek belief, spirits holding a 
place midway between the gods and men. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 61 

Then I name thee, claim thee for our patron, co-equal in 
praise 

— Ay, with Zeus the Defender, with Her of the aegis and 
spear ! 

Also, ye of the bow and the buskin, praised be your peer, 

Now, henceforth and forever, — latest to whom I up- 
raise 

Hand and heart and voice ! For Athens, leave pasture 
and flock! 

Present to help, potent to save. Pan — patron I call ! 

Archons of Athens, topped by the tettix, see, I return ! 
See, 'tis myself here standing alive, no spectre that 
speaks ! 10 

4. Zeus: The supreme deity of the Greeks, corresponding to 
the Roman Jupiter. 

Her of the aegis and spear: Pallas Athena (the Roman 
Minerva), goddess of wisdom and the protector of Athens. The 
aegis was a wonderful shield given her by Zeus. 

5. ye of the "bow and the buskin: Phoebus Apollo and Arte- 
mis, or Diana. Diana is always represented as wearing buskins, 
or laced hunting-boots, reaching halfway to the knee. 

8. Pan: A Greek woodland spirit; god of the hills and the 
woods, and of shepherds and their flocks, guardian of bees, and 
patron of hunters and fishers. He is generally represented as 
having the body of a man and the legs, horns, and tail of a goat, 
and as playing upon a reedy shepherd's pipe, his own invention. 
He had the power of causing sudden and senseless fear; hence 
the word panic. It was said that he brought about the victory 
at Marathon by causing panic among the Persians. In this con- 
nection, Mrs. Browning's poems, A Musical Instrument and The 
Death of Pan, should be read. 

9. Archons: Chief magistrates of Athens. 

tettix: A golden grasshopper worn in the hair by Athenian 
magistrates to signify their descent from the original inhabitants 
of the country, the grasshopper being supposed to spring from 
the ground. 



62 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

Crowned with the myrtle, did you command me, Athens 

and you, 
' ' Run, Pheidippides, run and race, reach Sparta for aid ! 
Persia has come, we are here, where is She? '' Your 

command I obeyed. 
Ran and raced : like stubble, some field which a fire runs 

through. 
Was the space between city and city: two days, two 

nights did I burn 
Over the hills, under the dales, down pits and up peaks. 

Into their midst I broke : breath served but for ' ' Persia 

has come! 
Persia bids Athens proffer slaves '-tribute, water and 

earth; 
Razed to the ground is Eretria — but Athens, shall 

Athens sink. 
Drop into dust and die — the flower of Hellas utterly 

die, 20 

Die, with the wide world spitting at Sparta, the stupid, 

the stander-by? 
Answer me quick, what help, what hand do you stretch 

o'er destruction's brink? 
How, — when ? No care for my limbs ! — there 's light- 
ning in all and some — 

12. reach Sparta: Nearly 140 miles from Athens. 
14. " Fire in dry stubble a nine-days wonder flared." 

Tennyson, Lancelot and Elaine. 

18. slaves'-tribute : Water and earth were given to invaders 
as tokens of submission. 

19. Eretria: A city on the island of Euboea, about thirty 
miles from Athens. It was captured by the Persians after a gal- 
lant defense, and was razed to the ground 

20. Hellas: Greece. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 63 

Fresh and fit your message to bear, once lips give it 
birth! '' 

my Athens — Sparta love thee ? Did Sparta respond? 

Every face of her leered in a furrow of envy, mistrust. 

Malice, — each eye of her gave me its glitter of gratified 
hate ! 

Gravely they turned to take counsel, to cast for excuses. 
I stood 

Quivering, — the limbs of me fretting as fire frets, an 
inch from dry wood: 

*^ Persia has come, Athens asks aid, and still they de- 
bate? 30 

Thunder, thou Zeus! Athene, are Spartans a quarry 
beyond 

Swing of thy spear? Phoibos and Artemis, clang them 
' Ye must'! '' 

No bolt launched from Olumpos! Lo, their answer at 

last! 
' ' Has Persia come, — does Athens ask aid, — may Sparta 

befriend ? 
Nowise precipitate judgment — too weighty the issue at 

stake ! 
Count we no time lost time which lags through respect 

to the gods ! 
Ponder that precept of old, ^ No warfare, whatever the 

odds 
In your favor, so long as the moon, half-orbed, is unable 

to take 

32. Phoibos: Phoebus. Browning preferably retains the Greek 
spelling. 

33. Olumpos: The early Greeks believed the home of the gods 
to be on the summit of Mt. Olympus in Thessaly. 



64 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

Full-circle her state in the sky! ' Already she rounds 
to it fast: 

Athens must wait, patient as we — who judgment sus- 
pend.'' 40 

Athens, — except for that sparkle, — thy name, I had 

mouldered to ash! 
That sent a blaze through my blood; off, off and away 

was I back, 
— Not one word to waste, one look to lose on the false 

and the vile! 
Yet ' ' gods of my land I " I cried, as each hillock and 

plain, 
Wood and stream, I knew, I named, rushing past them 

again, 
' ' Have ye kept faith, proved mindful of honors we paid 

you ere while? 
Vain was the filleted victim, the fulsome libation ! Too 

rash 
Love in its choice, paid you so largely service so slack! 

* ' Oak and olive and bay, — I bid you cease to enwreathe 

Brows made bold by your leaf! Fade at the Persian's 

foot, 50 

47. fiUeted: Adorned for the sacrifice with garlands or rib- 
bons. Keats refers to this Greek custom in his Ode to a Orecian 
Urn: 

To what green altar, O mysterious priest, 
Leadst thou that heifer lowing at the skies, 
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest. 

libation: Wine poured on the ground in honor of a god. 

48. Oak and olive and bay: The oak was sacred to Zeus, the 
olive to Pallas Athene, and the bay, or laurel, to Apollo. A gar- 
land of wild olive was the only prize given to a winner in the 
Olympian games, while a wreath of bay was the much-coveted re- 
ward of the successful poet. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 65 

You that, our patrons were pledged, should never adorn 

a slave! 
Rather I hail thee, Parnes, — trust to thy wild waste 

tract ! 
Treeless, herbless, lifeless mountain! What matter if 

slacked 
My speed may hardly be, for homage to crag and to cave 
No deity deigns to drape with verdure? at least I can 

breathe, 
Fear in thee no fraud from the blind, no lie from the 

mute! " 

Such my cry as, rapid, I ran over Fames' ridge; 

Gully and gap I clambered and cleared till, sudden, a bar 

Jutted, a stoppage of stone against me, blocking the way. 

Eight! for I minded the hollow to traverse, the fissure 
across : 60 

' ^ Where I could enter, there I depart by ! Night in the 
fosse ? 

Athens to aid? Though the dive were through Erebos, 
thus I obey — 

Out of the day dive, into the day as bravely arise ! No 
bridge 

Better ! ^ ' — when — ha ! what was it I came on, of won- 
ders that are? 

There, in the cool of a cleft, sat he — majestical Pan! 
Ivy drooped wanton, kissed his head, moss cushioned his 
hoof: 

52. Parnes: A mountain north of Athens and outside of the 
route to Sparta. According to Herodotus the runner met Pan at 
Mt. Parthenium. 

61. fosse: Latin fossa, a ditch. Here, a ravine. 

62. Erebos: Erebus, a place of utter darkness between the 
Earth and Hades. 

66. Ivy. Among the Greeks the ivy was held sacred. It was 
5 



66 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

All the great god was good in the eyes grave-kindly — 
the curl 

Carved on the bearded cheek, amused at a mortal's awe, 

As, under the human trunk, the goat-thighs grand I saw. 

'' Halt, Pheidippides ! " — halt I did, my brain of a 
whirl : 70 

^^ Hither to me! Why pale in my presence? " he gra- 
cious began: 

^ * How is it, — Athens, only in Hellas, holds me aloof ? 

*^ Athens, she only, rears me no fane, makes me no 

feast ! 
Wherefore ? Than I what godship to Athens more help- 
ful of old? 
Ay, and still, and forever her friend! Test Pan, trust 

me! 
Go, bid Athens take heart, laugh Persia to scorn, have 

faith 
In the temples and tombs! Go, say to Athens, ' The 

Goat-God saith: 
When Persia — so much as strews not the soil — is cast 

in the sea, 
Then praise Pan who fought in the ranks with your 

most and least. 
Goat-thigh to greaved-thigh, made one cause with the 

free and the bold!' 80 

** Say Pan saith: * Let this, foreshowing the place, be 

the pledge! ' " 
(Gay, the liberal hand held out this herbage I bear 

consecrated to Apollo, and Bacchus was profusely decorated 
with it. 

wanton : Loose. 

80. greaved-thigh. Greaves were armor for the legs. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 67 

— Fennel — I grasped it a-tremble with dew — whatever 

it bode) 
* * While, as for thee ' ' . . . But enough ! He was 

gone. If I ran hitherto — 
Be sure that, the rest of my journey, I ran no longer, 

but flew. 
Parnes to Athens — earth no more, the air was my road : 
Here am I back. Praise Pan, we stand no more on the 

razor's edge! 
Pan for Athens, Pan for me! I too have a guerdon 

rare! 

Then spoke Miltiades. '' And thee, best runner of 

Greece, 
Whose limbs did duty indeed, — what gift is promised 

thyself? 90 

Tell it us straightway, — Athens the mother demands of 

her son ! ' ' 
Rosily blushed the youth: he paused: but, lifting at 

length 
His eyes from the ground, it seemed as he gathered the 

rest of his strength 
Into the utterance — ' ' Pan spoke thus : ' For what 

thou hast done 
Count on a worthy reward! Henceforth be allowed 

thee release 
From the racer's toil, no vulgar reward in praise or in 

pelf! ' 

83. Fennel: Greek, Mdpadou, a common plant with which the 
field of Marathon was overgrown, 
bode : Foreshadowed. 

87. on the razor's edge. Meaning? 

88. guerdon: Reward. 

89. Miltiades: The Athenian general in command at the bat- 
tle of Marathon. 



68 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

'' I am bold to believe, Pan means reward the most to 

my mind! 
Fight I shall, with our foremost, wherever this fennel 

may grow, — 
Pound — Pan helping us — Persia to dust, and, under 

the deep, 
"Whelm her away forever; and then, — no Athens to 

save, — 100 

Marry a certain maid, I know keeps faith to the brave, — 
Hie to my house and home ; and, when my children shall 

creep 
Close to my knees, — recount how the God was awful 

yet kind, 
Promised their sire reward to the full — rewarding him 

— so! " 



Unforeseeing one ! Yes, he fought on the Marathon 
day: 

So, when Persia was dust, all cried ' ' To Akropolis ! 

Eun, Pheidippides, one race more ! the meed is thy due ! 

' Athens is saved, thank Pan,' go shout! '^ He flung 
down his shield, 

Ean like fire once more : and the space 'twixt the Fen- 
nel-field 

And Athens was stubble again, a field which a fire runs 
through, 110 

Till in he broke: '^ Rejoice, we conquer! " Like wine 
through clay, 

Joy in his blood bursting his heart, he died — the bliss ! 

So, to this day, when friend meets friend, the word of 
salute 

106. Akropolis: The citadel of Athens. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 69 

Is still '' Rejoice! '' — his word which brought rejoicing 

indeed. 
So is Pheidippides happy forever, — the noble strong 

man 
Who could race like a god, bear the face of a god, whom 

a god loved so well; 
He saw the land saved he had helped to save, and was 

suffered to tell 
Such tidings, yet never decline, but, gloriously as he 

began, 
So to end gloriously — once to shout, thereafter be mute : 
* ' Athens is saved ! ' ' — Pheidippides dies in the shout 

for his meed. 120 



THE PATRIOT 

AN OLD STORY 

It was roses, roses, all the way, 

"With myrtle mixed in my path like mad: 

The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway. 
The church-spires flamed, such flags they had, 

A year ago on this very day. 

The air broke into a mist with bells. 

The old walls rocked with the crowd and cries. 

Had I said, ' ' Good folk, mere noise repels — 
But give me your sun from. yonder skies! " 

They had answered, ' ' And afterward, what else ? " 10 

Alack, it was I who leaped at the sun 

To give it my loving friends to keep ! 
Naught man could do, have I left undone: 

And you see my harvest, what I reap 
This very day, now a year is run. 



70 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

There's nobody on the house-tops now — 

Just a palsied few at the windows set; 
For the best of the sight is, all allow, 

At the Shambles' Gate — or, better yet, 
By the very scaffold's foot, I trow. 20 

I go in the rain, and, more than needs, 

A rope cuts both my wrists behind ; 
And I think, by the feel, my forenead bleeds, i| 

For they fling, whoever has a mind. 
Stones at me for my year's misdeeds. 

Thus I entered, and thus I go! 

In triumphs, people have dropped down dead. 
** Paid by the w^orld, what dost thou owe 

Me? " — God might question; now instead, 
'Tis God shall repay : I am safer so. 30 



INSTANS TYRANNUS 



Of the million or two, more or less, 
I rule and possess. 
One man, for some cause undefined, 
Was least to my mind. 

19. Shambles: Literally, a place where butchers kill animals. 
What does it mean here? 

20. trow: Suppose, think. 

27. triumphs: A triumph was originally a magnificent cere- 
mony in honor of a victorious general; hence, any triumphal pro- 
cession. 

Instans Tyrannus : The threatening tyrant. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 71 

n 

I struck him, he groveled of course — 

For, what was his force ? 

I pinned him to earth with my weight 

And persistence of hate: 

And he lay, would not moan, would not curse, 

As his lot might be worse. 10 

m 

^^ Were the object less mean, would he stand 

At the swing of my hand ! 

For obscurity helps him and blots 

The hole where he squats." 

So, I set my five wits on the stretch 

To inveigle the wretch. 

All in vain! Gold and jewels I threw, 

Still he couched there perdue ; 

I tempted his blood and his flesh, 

Hid in roses my mesh, 20 

Choicest cates and the flagon's best spilth: 

Still he kept to his filth. 

IV 

Had he kith now or kin, were access 

To his heart, did I press: 

Just a son or a mother to seize! 

No such booty as these. 

Were it simply a friend to pursue 

'Mid my million or two, 

Who could pay me in person or pelf, 

What he owes me himself ! 30 

18. perdue: In concealment. 

21. cates: Food, especially luxurious food. — spilth: An 
archaic word meaning excess of supply. 



72 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

No: I could not but smile through my chafe: 

For the fellow lay safe 

As his mates do, the midge and the nit, 

— Through minuteness, to wit. 



Then a humor more great took its place 

At the thought of his face, 

The droop, the low cares of the mouth, 

The trouble uncouth 

'Twixt the brows, all that air one is fain 

To put out of its pain. 40 

And, ' ' no ! " I admonished myself, 

*' Is one mocked by an elf, 

Is one baffled by toad or by rat ? 

The gravamen's in that! 

How the lion, who crouches to suit 

His back to my foot, 

Would admire that I stand in debate! 

But the small turns the great 

If it vexes you, — that is the thing ! 

Toad or rat vex the king ? 50 

Though I waste half my realm to unearth 

Toad or rat, 'tis well worth! " 



VI 

So, I soberly laid my last plan 

To extinguish the man. 

Eound his creep-hole, with never a break. 

Ran my fires for his sake; 

Over-head, did my thunder combine 

With my underground mine : 

44. gravamen: Burden of complaint, special grievance. 
47. admire: Wonder. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 73 

Till I looked from my labor content 

To enjoy the event. 60 

vn 

When sudden . . . how think ye, the end? 

Did I say '* without friend? '' 

Say rather, from marge to blue marge 

The whole sky grew his targe 

With the sun 's self for visible boss. 

While an Arm ran across 

Which the earth heaved beneath like a breast! 

Where the wretch was safe prest ! 

Do you see? Just my vengeance complete. 

The man sprang to his feet, 70 

Stood erect, caught at God's skirts, and prayed! 

— So, / was afraid ! 



THE LOST LEADER 

Just for a handful of silver he left us. 

Just for a riband to stick in his coat — 
Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us, 

Lost all the others she lets us devote; 
They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver, 

So much was theirs who so little allowed: 
How all our copper had gone for his service! 

Rags — were they purple, his heart had been proud ! 

64. targe: A shield. 

65. boss: The central projection of a shield. 

69. Supply " as " before " my " and " was " before " complete." 

2. riband: Eibbon. 

5. doled: Emphasizes what idea? 

8. purple: Royal robes. 



74 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

We that had loved him so, followed him, honored him, 

Lived in his mild and magnificent eye, 10 

Learned his great language, caught his clear accents, 

Made him our pattern to live and to die ! 
Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us. 

Burns, Shelley, were with us, — they watch from their 
graves ! 
He alone breaks from the van and the freemen, 

— He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves ! 

"We shall march prospering, — not through his presence ; 

Songs may inspirit us, — not from his lyre ; 
Deeds will be done, — while he boasts his quiescence. 

Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire: 20 
Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more. 

One task more declined, one more footpath untrod. 
One more devils '-triumph and sorrow for angels. 

One wrong more to man, one more insult to God ! 
Life 's night begins : let him never come back to us ! 

There would be doubt, hesitation and pain. 
Forced praise on our part — the glimmer of twilight. 

Never glad confident morning again! 
Best fight on well, for we taught him — strike gallantly. 

Menace our heart ere we master his own ; 30 

Then let him receive the new knowledge and wait us, 

Pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne ! 

20. still bidding crouch, etc.: Reference is here made to the 
masses, for whose betterment the Liberals were striving. 

30. Originally, " Aim at our heart ere we pierce through his 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 75 

CAVALIER TUNES 

I. MARCHING ALONG 

Kentish Sir Byng stood for his King, 

Bidding the crop-headed Parliament swing: 

And, pressing a troop unable to stoop 

And see the rogues flourish and honest folk droop. 

Marched them along, fifty-score strong. 

Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song. 

God for King Charles ! Pym and such carles 

To the Devil that prompts 'em their treasonous paries ! 

Cavaliers, up ! Lips from the cup. 

Hands from the pasty, nor bite take nor sup 10 

Till you're — 

Chorus. — Marching along, fifty-score strong 

Qreat-hearted gentlemen, singing this song. 

Hampden to hell, and his obsequies' knell. 

Serve Hazelrig, Fiennes, and young Harry as well! 

1. Sir Byng: A fictitious nobleman. 

2. crop-headed Parliament : The Royalists wore their hair long 
or in ringlets, while the Puritans cropped theirs close. In con- 
sequence, the Cavaliers contemptuously called the Puritans Round- 
heads. See line 10 of Boot and Saddle. 

7. Pym: A leader of Parliament against Charles I. 
carles : Churls, rustics — a term of contempt. 

8. paries: Parleys. 

" When in an angry parle 
He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice." 

— Shakespeare. 
10. pasty: A meat pie. 

14. Hampden: A noted Parliamentary leader, famous for his 
resistance to the illegal ship-money tax laid by King Charles. 

15. These men were leaders of the Puritan party. Young 



76 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

England, good cheer ! Rnpert is near ! 
Kentish and loyalists, keep we not here, 
Cho. — Marching along, fifty-score strong, 

Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song. 

Then, God for King Charles ! Pym and his snarls 20 
To the Devil that pricks on such pestilent carles ! 
Hold by the right, you double your might ; 
So, onward to Nottingham, fresh for the fight, 

Cho. — March we along, fifty-score strong. 

Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song ! 

II. GIVE A ROUSE 

King Charles, and who'll do him right now? 
King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now? 
Give a rouse: here's, in hell's despite now, 
King Charles! 

Who gave me the goods that went since? 
Who raised me the house that sank once? 
Who helped me to gold I spent since? 
Who found me in wine you drank once? 

Cho. — King Charles, and who '11 do him right now ? 
King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now ? 10 
Give a rouse : here 's, in hell 's despite now. 
King Charles ! 

Harry was the son of Sir Henry Vane, the King's Secretary of 
State. He joined the Parliamentary party in opposition to his 
father, and was beheaded in 1662 on a charge of treason. 

16. Rupert: A Bavarian prince and a nephew of King Charles; 
a dashing Royalist leader in the Civil War. 

23. Nottingham: A town where King Charles set up his 
standard at the beginning of the Civil ^Yar. 

House: Dr. Furness says: "A * rouse ' was originally a 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 77 

To whom used my boy George quaff else, 
By the old fool's side that begot him? 
For whom did he cheer and laugh else, 
While Noll's damned troopers shot him? 

Cho. — King Charles, and who'll do him right now? 
King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now ? 
Give a rouse : here's, in hell's despite now, 
King Charles ! 20 

III. BOOT AND SADDLE 

Boot, saddle, to horse, and away ! 
Rescue my castle before the hot day 
Brightens to blue from its silvery gray. 

Cho. — Boot, saddle, to horse, and away ! ' ' 

Ride past the suburbs, asleep as you 'd say ; 
Many 's the friend there, will listen and pray 
" God's luck to gallants that strike up the lay — 

Cho. — Boot, saddle, to horse, and away ! 

Forty miles off, like a roebuck at bay. 

Flouts Castle Brancepeth the Roundheads ' array : 10 

Who laughs, ^ ' Good fellows ere this, by my fay, 

Cho. — Boot, saddle, to horse, and away! 

large glass (^not past a pint,' as lago says), in which a health 
was given." Here the word is applied to the health itself. 

16. Noll: Oliver Cromwell, leader of the Parliamentary forces 
and later Lord Protector of England. 

Originally entitled Mif Wife Gertrude. " Boots and Saddles '* 
is the bugle call which summons cavalry to mounted drill. 

11. fay: Faith. 



78 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

Who ? My wife Gertrude ; that, honest and gay, 
Laughs when you talk of surrendering, ' ' Nay ! 
IVe better counsellors; what counsel they? 



>> 



Cho. — Boot, saddle, to horse, and away ! 
MY LAST DUCHESS 

FERRARA 

That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, 

Looking as if she were alive. I call 

That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf 's hands 

Worked busily a day, and there she stands. 

Wiirt please you sit and look at her? I said 

*' Fra Pandolf " by design, for never read 

Strangers like you that pictured countenance. 

The depth and passion of its earnest glance, 

But to myself they turned (since none puts by 

The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) 10 

And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst, 

How such a glance came there ; so, not the first 

Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not 

Her husband's presence only, called that spot 

Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps 

Fra Pandolf chanced to say, ' * Her mantle laps 

Over my lady's wrist too much," or, '' Paint 

Must never hope to reproduce the faint 

Half -flush that dies along her throat: " such stuff 

Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough 20 

For calling up that spot of joy. She had 

Ferrara: A city of Northern Italy whose Dukes were great 
patrons of art. 

3. Fra: Brother. A friar's title. Fra Pandolf is a purely 
imaginary artist. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 79 

A heart — how shall I say ? — too soon made glad, 

Too easily impressed: she liked whatever 

She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. 

Sir, 'twas all one ! My favor at her breast, 

The dropping of the daylight in the West, 

The bough of cherries some officious fool 

Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule 

She rode with round the terrace — all and each 

Would draw from her alike the approving speech, 30 

Or blush, at least. She thanked men, — good! but 

thanked 
Somehow — I know not how — as if she ranked 
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name 
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame 
This sort of trifling ? Even had you skill 
In speech — (which I have not) — to make your will 
Quite clear to such an one, and say, ' ' Just this 
Or that in you disgusts me ; here you miss, 
Or there exceed the mark ' ' — and if she let 
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set 40 

Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse, 
— E 'en then would be some stooping ; and I choose 
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt. 
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without 
Much the same smile ? This grew ; I gave commands ; 
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands 
As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet 

44. I gave commands: Professor Corson once asked the poet 
whether he meant commands for her death. *^ Yes," replied 
Browning, " I meant that the commands were that she should be 
put to death." And then, after a pause, he added, as if the 
thought had just started in his mind, " Or he might have had her 
shut up in a convent." It is evident, then, that Browning had 
in mind the killing of a sweet soul, whether the body lived on or 
not. 



80 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

The company below, then. I repeat, 

The Count your master's known munificence 

Is ample warrant that no just pretence 50 

Of mine for dowry will be disallowed ; 

Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed 

At starting, is my object. Nay, well go 

Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though, 

Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity. 

Which Glaus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me ! 



COUNT GISMOND 

AIX IN PROVENCE 

Christ God who savest man, save most 
Of men Count Gismond who saved me! 

Count Gauthier, when he chose his post, 
Chose time and place and company 

To suit it; when he struck at length 

My honor, 'twas with all his strength. 

And doubtlessly ere he could draw 

All points to one, he must have schemed !. 

That miserable morning saw 
Few half so happy as I seemed, 10 

While being dressed in queen's array 

To give our tourney prize away. 

56. Claus of Innsbruck: Like Fra Pandolf, an imaginary 
artist. 

Provence : A former province of Southern France. 

11. queen's array: The robes of the Queen of Love and Beauty, 
who bestowed the prize upon the winner of a tournament. See 
Ivanhoe, chapters viii-ix. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 81 

I thought they loved me, did me grace 
To please themselves ; 'twas all their deed, 

God makes, or fair or foul, our face ; 
If showing mine so caused to bleed 

My cousins ' hearts, they should have dropped 

A word, and straight the play had stopped. 

They, too, so beauteous ! Each a queen 

By virtue of her brow and breast ; 20 

Not needing to be crowned, I mean, 
As I do. E 'en when I was dressed, 

Had either of them spoke, instead 

Of glancing sideways with still head ! 

But no : they let me laugh, and sing 
My birthday song quite through, adjust 

The last rose in my garland, fling 
A last look on the mirror, trust 

My arms to each an arm of theirs. 

And so descend the castle-stairs — 30 

And come out on the morning-troop 
Of merry friends who kissed my cheek, 

And called me queen, and made me stoop 
Under the canopy — (a streak 

That pierced it, of the outside sun, 

Powdered with gold its gloom's soft dun) — 

And they could let me take my state 

And foolish throne amid applause 
Of all come there to celebrate 

My queen 's-day — Oh I think the cause 40 

Of much was, they forgot no crowd 
Makes up for parents in their shroud ! 
6 



82 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

Howe 'er that be, all eyes were bent 

Upon me, when my cousins cast 
Theirs down ; 'twas time I should present 

The victor's crown, but . . . there, 'twill last 
No long time . . . the old mist again 
Blinds me as then it did. How vain ! 

See! Gismond's at the gate, in talk 

With his two boys : I can proceed. 50 

"Well, at that moment, who should stalk 

Forth boldly — to my face, indeed — 
But Gauthier, and he thundered, '' Stay! '' 
And all stayed. * ' Bring no crowns, I say ! 

* * Bring torches ! Wind the penance-sheet 
About her! Let her shun the chaste, 

Or lay herself before their feet ! 
Shall she whose body I embraced 

A night long, queen it in the day ? 

For honor's sake no crowns, I say! " 60 

I? What I answered? As I live, 

I never fancied such a thing 
As answer possible to give. 

What says the body when they spring 
Some monstrous torture-engine's whole 
Strength on it? No more says the soul. 

Till out strode Gismond ; then I knew 

That I was saved. I never met 
His face before, but, at first view, 

I felt quite sure that God had set 
Himself to Satan; who would spend 
A minute 's mistrust on the end ? 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 83 

He strode to Gauthier, in his throat 
Gave him the lie, then struck his mouth 

With one back-handed blow that wrote 

In blood men's verdict there. North, South, 

East, West, I looked. The lie was dead, 

And damned, and truth stood up instead. 

This glads me most, that I enjoyed 

The heart of the joy, with my content 80 

In watching Gismond unalloyed 

By any doubt of the event : 
God took that on him — I was bid 
Watch Gismond for my part : I did. 

Did I not watch him while he let 

His armorer just brace his greaves, 
Kivet his hauberk, on the fret 

The while ! His foot . . . my memory leaves 
No least stamp out, nor how anon 
He pulled his ringing gauntlets on. 90 

And e'en before the trumpet's sound 
Was finished, prone lay the false knight, 

Prone as his lie, upon the ground : 
Gismond flew at him, used no sleight 

0' the sword, but open-breasted drove. 

Cleaving till out the truth he clove. 

Which done, he dragged him to my feet 
And said, ' ' Here die, but end thy breath 

In full confession, lest thou fleet 

From my first, to God's second death! 100 

87. Hauberk: Generally, a coat of mail; here, a piece of armor 
for the protection of the neck. 



84 SELECT POEMS OF BJEIOWNING 

Say, hast thou lied? " And, '' I have lied 
To God and her," he said, and died. 

Then Gismond, kneeling to me, asked 

— What safe my heart holds, though no word 

Could I repeat now, if I tasked 
My powers forever, to a third 

Dear even as you are. Pass the rest 

Until I sank upon his breast. 

Over my head his arm he flung 

Against the world ; and scarce I felt 110 

His sword (that dripped by me and swung) 

A little shifted in its belt : 
For he began to say the while 
How South our home lay many a mile. 

So 'mid the shouting multitude 
"We two walked forth to never more 

Return. My cousins have pursued 
Their life, untroubled as before 

I vexed them. Gauthier's dwelling-place 

God lighten ! May his soul find grace ! 120 

Our elder boy has got the clear 

Great brow ; though when his brother 's black 
Full eye shows scorn, it . . . Gismond here? 

And have you brought my tercel back ? 
I just w^as telling Adela 
How many birds it struck since May. 

124. Tercel; A male falcon; used in mediaeval times for hunt- 
ing other birds. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 85 



HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM THE SEA 

Nobly, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the Northwest died 

away ; 
Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz 

Bay; 
Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar 

lay; 
In the dimmest Northeast distance dawned Gibraltar 

grand and gray ; 
'^ Here and here did England help me: how can I help 

England? " — say. 
Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise 

and pray. 
While Jove's planet rises yonder, silent over Africa. 



HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD 

Oh, to be in England 

Now that April's there, 

And whoever w^akes in England 

Sees, some morning, unaware. 

That the lowest boughs and the brush-wood sheaf 

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, 

L Cape Saint Vincent: On the southwestern coast of Portugal. 
Here Nelson won a great victory over the Spanish fleet. 

3. Trafalgar: A cape on the southwestern coast of Spain. Off 
this point Nelson won his famous naval victory over the French, 
losing his life in the fight. 

4. Gibraltar: The famous rock and fortress at the entrance of 
the Mediterranean; a world-renowned British stronghold. 

7. Jove'^ planet: Jupiter, 
a. bole. Trunk, 



86 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

While the chaffineh sings on the orchard bough 
In England — now! 

And after April, when May follows, 

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows ! 10 

Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge 

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover 

Blossoms and dewdrops — at the bent spray 's edge — 

That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over, 

Lest you should think he never could recapture 

The first fine careless rapture ! 

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew, 

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew 

The buttercups, the little children 's dower 

— Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower ! 20 



'' DE GUSTIBUS— " 

Your ghost will walk, you lover of trees, 

(If our loves remain) 

In an English lane, 
By a cornfield-side a-flutter with poppies. 
Hark, those two in the hazel coppice — 
A boy and a girl, if the good fates please, 

7. chaffinch: The prettiest of English song birds. — Burroughs, 
14-16. Having in mind Shakespeare and Shelley, I nevertheless 

think the last three lines the finest ever written touching the 

song of a bird. — Stedman, 

" De Gustibus " : From the old Latin proverb. '' De gustibus 

non est disputandum — " About tastes there is no disputing. 

4. cornfield-side: Not Indian corn. The poet has in mind a 
field of wheat or similar grain. 

5. coppice: Copse, thicket. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 87 

Making love, say, — 

The happier they ! 
Draw yourself up from the light of the moon, 
And let them pass, as they will too soon, 10 

With the beanflowers' boon. 

And the blackbird's tune, 

And May, and June ! 

What I love best in all the world 

Is a castle, precipice-encurled. 

In a gash of the wind-grieved Apennine. 

Or look for me, old fellow of mine, 

(If I get my head from out the mouth 

0' the grave, and loose my spirit's bands. 

And come again to the land of lands) — 20 

In a sea-side house to the farther South, 

Where the baked cicala dies of drouth. 

And one sharp tree — 'tis a cypress — stands 

By the many hundred years red-rusted, 

Eough iron-spiked, ripe f ruit-o 'ercrusted, 

My sentinel to guard the sands 

To the water's edge. For, what expands 

Before the house, but the great opaque 

Blue breadth of sea without a break? 

While, in the house, forever crumbles 30 

Some fragment of the frescoed walls, 

From blisters where a scorpion sprawls. 

A girl bare-footed brings, and tumbles 

Down on the pavement, green-flesh melons, 

And says there 's news to-day — the king 

Was shot at, touched in the liver- wing, 

22. cicala: The cicada, a kind of locust, which gives forth a 
characteristic grating sound. 



88 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

Goes with his Bourbon arm in a sling : 

— She hopes they have not caught the felons. 

Italy, my Italy! 

Queen Mary's saying serves for me — 40 

(When fortune's malice 

Lost her, Calais), 
Open my heart and you will see 
Graved inside of it, " Italy." 
Such lovers old are I and she : 
So it always was, so shall ever be ! 



::< 7> 



SONGS FROM " PIPPA PASSES 



All service ranks the same with God: 

If now, as formerly he trod 

Paradise, his presence fills 

Our earth, each only as God wills 

Can work — God's puppets, best and worst, 

Are we ; there is no last nor first. 

Say nof a small event ! ' ' Why ' ' small ' ' ? 
Costs it more pain that this, ye call 

37. Bourbon: The Bourbons were a royal house of Europe, 
members of which at one time or another occupied the thrones of 
France, Spain, and Naples. It was said of them that they never 
learned anything and never forgot anything. The term Bourbon- 
ism has become a synonym for stubborn conservatism and re- 
action. 

40. Queen Mary's saying: When Queen Mary lost Calais in her 
ill-starred war with France, England had not a foot of land left 
on the Continent. On her deathbed the Queen said to those 
around her : " When I am dead and my body is opened, ye shall 
find Calais written on my heart/' 

2. as: That is, as ichen. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 89 

A ^ ' great event, ' ^ should come to pass, 
Than that? Untwine me from the mass 10 

Of deeds which make up life, one deed 
Power shall fall short in or exceed ! 

n 

The year's at the spring 
And day 's at the morn ; 
Morning's at seven; 
The hillside's dew-pearled; 
The lark's on the wing; 
The snail's on the thorn: 
God's in his heaven — 
All's right with the world! 

in 

Give her but a least excuse to love me ! 

When — where — 

How — can this arm establish her above me, 

If fortune fixed her as my lady there, 

There already, to eternally reprove me? 

C Hist! " — said Kate the Queen; 

But * * Oh ! " cried the maiden, binding her tresses, 

^ ' 'Tis only a page that carols unseen. 

Crumbling your hounds their messes! ") 

Is she wronged ? — To the rescue of her honor, 10 

My heart ! 

Is she poor? — What costs it to be styled a donor? 

Merely an earth to cleave, a sea to part. 

But that fortune should have thrust all this upon her ! 

{" Nay, list! " — bade Kate the Queen; 

And still cried the maiden, binding her tresses, 

14. all this: That is, her high rank. 



90 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

' ' 'Tis only a page that carols iinseen, 
Fitting your hawks their jesses! ") 

IV 

Overhead the tree-tops meet, 

Flowers and grass spring 'neath one's feet; 

There was naught above me, naught below, 

My childhood had not learned to know : 

For, what are the voices of birds 

— Ay, and of beasts, — but words, our words, 

Only so much more sweet ? 

The knowledge of that with my life begun. 

But I had so near made out the sun. 

And counted your stars, the seven and one, 10 

Like the fingers of my hand : 

Nay, I could all but understand 

Wherefore through heaven the white moon ranges; 

And just when out of her soft fifty changes 

No unfamiliar face might overlook me — 

Suddenly God took me. 



THE BOY AND THE ANGEL 



Morning, evening, noon and night, 
^ ' Praise God ! ' ' sang Theocrite. 



18. jesses: Sliort straps of leather or other material fastened 
to the leg of a hunting-hawk, to which are attached the bells or 
the leash by which the hawk is held. 

10. the seven and one: "The seven" are doubtless the Pleia- 
des, dear to the heart of every child; the "one" is perhaps Pip- 
pa's favorite star. The Camberwell Edition suggests that the 
"one" may be Aldebaran (the follower), so-called because it 
follows the Pleiades. It is in the group called the Hyades, which 
with the Pleiades forms part of the constellation Taurus. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 91 

Then to his poor trade he turned, 
Whereby the daily meal was earned. 

Hard he labored, long and well ; 
'er his work the boy 's curls fell. 



But ever, at each period. 

He stopped and sang, ' ' Praise God ! 



)> 



Then back again his curls he threw, 

And cheerful turned to work anew. 10 

Said Blaise, the listening monk, ' ' Well done ; 
I doubt not thou art heard, my son : 

*' As well as if thy voice to-day 

Were praising God, the Pope 's great way. 

^ ' This Easter Day, the Pope at Rome 
Praises God from Peter's dome.'' 

Said Theocrite, " Would God that I 

Might praise him that great way, and die ! ' ' 

Night passed, day shone. 

And Theocrite was gone. 20 

With God a day endures alway, 
A thousand years are but a day. 

God said in heaven, ^' Nor day nor night 
Now brings the voice of my delight. ' ' 

Then Gabriel, like a rainbow's birth, 
Spread his wings and sank to earth; 

16. Peter's dome: St. Peter's cathedral in Rome. 
25. Gabriel: An archangel, God's messenger. 



92 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

Entered, in flesh, the empty cell^ 

Lived there, and played the craftsman well; 

And morning, evening, noon and night, 

Praised God in place of Theocrite. 30 

And from a boy, to youth he grew : 
The man put off the stripling 's hue : 

The man matured and fell away 
Into the season of decay : 

And ever o'er the trade he bent, 
And ever lived on earth content. 

(He did God's will; to him, all one 
If on the earth or in the sun. ) 

God said, ^ * A praise is in mine ear ; 

There is no doubt in it, no fear : 40 

' ' So sing old worlds, and so 

New worlds that from my footstool go. 

*^ Clearer loves sound other ways: 
I miss my little human praise. ' ' 

Then forth sprang GabrieFs wings, off fell 
The flesh disguise, remained the cell. 

'Twas Easter Day : he flew to Rome, 
And paused above Saint Peter's dome. 

In the tiring-room close by 

The great outer gallery, 50 

49. tiring-room: The room where the Pope was " dight," or 
attired, with his ** holy vestments." 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 93 

With his holy vestments dight, 
Stood the new Pope, Theoerite : 

And all his past career 
Came back upon him clear, 

Since when, a boy, he plied his trade, 
Till on his life the sickness weighed ; 

And in his cell, when death drew near, 
An angel in a dream brought cheer : 

And rising from the sickness drear, 

He grew a priest, and now stood here. 60 

To the East with praise he turned. 
And on his sight the angel burned. 

^' I bore thee from thy craftsman's cell, 
And set thee here ; I did not well. 

' ' Vainly I left my angel-sphere, 
Vain was thy dream of many a year. 

' ' Thy voice 's praise seemed weak ; it dropped — 
Creation's chorus stopped! 

^'60 back and praise again 

The early way, while I remain. 70 

' ^ With that weak voice of our disdain, 
Take up creation's pausing strain. 

' ' Back to the cell and poor employ : 
Resume the craftsman and the boy! " 



94 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

Theocrite grew old at home ; 

A new Pope dwelt in Peter's dome. 

One vanished as the other died : 
They sought God side by side. 



UP AT A VILLA — DOWN IN THE CITY 

(As distinguished hy an Italian person of quality) 

Had I but plenty of money, money enough and to spare, 
The house for me, no doubt, were a house in the city- 
square ; 
Ah, such a life, such a life, as one leads at the window 
there ! 

Something to see, by Bacchus, something to hear, at least ! 
There, the whole day long, one 's life is a perfect feast ; 
While up at a villa one lives, I maintain it, no more than 
a beast. 

Well now, look at our villa ! stuck like the horn of a bull 
Just on a mountain-edge as bare as the creature 's skull. 
Save a mere shag of a bush with hardly a leaf to pull ! 
— I scratch my own, sometimes, to see if the hair's turned 
wool. 10 

But the city, oh, the city — the square with the houses ! 

Why? 
They are stone-faced, white as a curd, there's something 

to take the eye ! 
Houses in four straight lines, not a single front awry ; 

Person of quality: A person of noble birth. 
4. Bacchus: The Roman god of wine, whose name is often in- 
voked in Italian speech. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 95 

You watch who crosses and gossips, who saunters, who 

hurries by ; 
Green blinds, as a matter of course, to draw when the sun 

gets high; 
And the shops with fanciful signs which are painted 

properly. 

What of a villa? Though winter be over in March by 
rights, 

'Tis May, perhaps, ere the snow shall have withered well 
off the heights: 

YouVe the brown ploughed land before, where the oxen 
steam and wheeze. 

And the hills over-smoked behind by the faint gray olive- 
trees. 20 

Is it better in May, I ask you? YouVe summer all at 

once; 
In a day he leaps complete with a few strong April 

suns. 
'Mid the sharp short emerald wheat, scarce risen three 

fingers well. 
The wild tulip, at end of its tube, blows out its great red 

bell 
Like a thin clear bubble of blood, for the children to pick 

and sell. 

Is it ever hot in the square ? There's a fountain to spout 
and splash ! 

In the shade it sings and springs ; in the shine such foam- 
bows flash 

On the horses with curling fish-tails, that prance and 
paddle and pash 

28. pash: The noun "pash" means a heavy dash of rain. 



96 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

Round the lady atop in her conch — fifty gazers do not 

abash, 
Though all that she wears is some weeds round her waist 

in a sort of sash. 30 

All the year long at the villa, nothing to see though you 

linger, 
Except yon cypress that points like death's lean lifted 

forefinger. 
Some think fireflies pretty, when they mix i ' the corn and 

mingle, 
Or thrid the stinking hemp till the stalks of it seem 

a-tingle. 
Late August or early September, the stunning cicala is 

shrill. 
And the bees keep their tiresome whine round the resin- 
ous firs on the hill. 
Enough of the seasons, — I spare you the months of the 

fever and chill. 

Ere you open your eyes in the city, the blessed church- 
bells begin: 

No sooner the bells leave off than the diligence rattles in : 

You get the pick of the news, and it costs you never a 
pin. 40 

By and by there's the travelling doctor gives pills, lets 
blood, draws teeth ; 

Or the Pulcinello-trumpet breaks up the market beneath. 

Here used to suggest the beating of the water by the hoofs of a 
horse. 

29. conch: A large marine shell; here forming a part of the 
symbolic decoration of the fountain. 

39. diligence: A public stagecoach. 

42. Pulcinello: Punchinello, a character in an Italian bur- 
lesque, or puppet show^ and the original of the English Punch. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 97 

At the post-office such a scene-picture — the new play, 
piping hot ! 

And a notice how, only this morning, three liberal 
thieves were shot. 

Above it, behold the Archbishop's most fatherly of re- 
bukes, 

And beneath, with his crown and his lion, some little new 
law of the Duke 's ! 

Or a sonnet with flowery marge, to the Reverend Don 
So-and-so, 

Who is Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca, Saint Jerome, and 
Cicero, 

'' And moreover,'' (the sonnet goes rhyming,) " the 
skirts of Saint Paul has reached. 

Having preached us those six Lent-lectures more unc- 
tuous than ever he preached. ' ' 50 

Noon strikes, — here sweeps the procession! our Lady 
borne smiling and smart 

"With a pink gauze gown all spangles, and seven swords 
stuck in her heart ! 

48. Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca: Three of the greatest names in 
Italian literature. Dante, author of the Divina Commedia, is one 
of the world's greatest poets. Boccaccio is a famous story-teller, 
whose works strongly influenced writers of other lands. Petrarch 
is a lyrical poet, especially celebrated for his fine sonnets. 

Saint Jerome: One of the fathers of the Roman Church and a 
celebrated scholar. Among his works is the Latin translation of 
the Bible known as the Vulgate, 

Cicero: A distinguished Roman orator and writer of the age 
of Julius Caesar. 

49. the skirts of St. Paul has reached: Has equaled St. Paul 
as a preacher. 

51. Our Lady: The Yirgin Mary. 

52. seven swords: One for each of the seven legendary sorrows 
of the Virgin. 



98 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

Bang 'WJiang -whang goes the drum, tootle4e-tootle the 

fife; 
No keeping one's haunches still : it's the greatest pleasure 

in life. 
But bless you, it's dear — it's dear ! fowls, wine, at double 

the rate. 
They have clapped a new tax upon salt, and what oil pays 

passing the gate 
It's a horror to think of. And so, the villa for me, not 

the city ! 
Beggars can scarcely be choosers : but still — ah, the pity, 

the pity! 
Look, two and two go the priests, then the monks with 

cowls and sandals, 
And the penitents dressed in white shirts, a-holding the 

yellow candles; 60 

One, he carries a flag up straight, and another a cross 

with handles, 
And the Duke 's guard brings up the rear, for the better 

prevention of scandals: 
Bang -whang -whang goes the drum, tootle-te-tootle the 

fife. 
Oh, a day in the city-square, there is no such pleasure in 

life! 



THE ITALIAN IN ENGLAND 



That second time they hunted me 
From hill to plain, from shore to sea, 



56, passing the gate: In the old Italian cities the revenues 
were collected at the city gates and all provisions were heavily 
taxed. Salt and oil, being universally used, were prolific sources 
of income for the Dukes. 

60. yenow candles: Symbols of penitence. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 99 

And Austria, houndino^ far and wide 

Her blood-hounds through the country-side, 

Breathed hot and instant on my trace, — 

I made six days a hiding-place 

Of that dry green old aqueduct 

Where I and Charles, when boys, have plucked 

The fire-flies from the roof above, 

Bright creeping through the moss they love : 10 

— How long it seems since Charles was lost ! 

Six days the soldiers crossed and crossed 

The country in my very sight ; 

And when that peril ceased at night. 

The sky broke out in red dismay 

With signal fires ; well, there I lay 

Close covered o 'er in my recess, 

Up to the neck in ferns and cress, 

Thinking on Metternich our friend, 

And Charles's miserable end, 20 

And much beside, two days ; the third, 

Hunger o 'ercame me w^hen I heard 

The peasants from the village go 

To work among the maize ; you know, 

With us in Lombardy, they bring 

Provisions packed on mules, a string, 

With little bells that cheer their task. 

And casks, and boughs on every cask 

To keep the sun 's heat from the wine ; 

8. Charles: Charles Albert, Prince of Carignano, who at first 
supported the revolutionary movement but later abandoned it. 
His having played with the patriot in his youth is quite possible, 
for Charles was brought up as a simple citizen in a public school. 
— Cambericell Edition. 

19. Metternich: A renowned Austrian diplomatist and an in- 
veterate foe of Italian liberty. 

20. Charles's miserable end. Meaning? 



100 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

These I let pass in jingling line, 30 

And, close on them, dear noisy crew, 

The peasants from the village, too ; 

For at the very rear would troop 

Their wives and sisters in a group 

To help, I knew. When these had passed 

I threw my glove to strike the last, 

Taking the chance : she did not start. 

Much less cry out, but stooped apart. 

One instant rapidly glanced round. 

And saw me beckon from the ground ; 40 

A wild bush grows and hides my crypt ; 

She picked my glove up while she stripped 

A branch off, then rejoined the rest 

With that; my glove lay in her breast. 

Then I drew breath: they disappeared: 

It was for Italy I feared. 

An hour, and she returned alone 
Exactly where my glove was thrown. 
Meanwhile came many thoughts; on me 
Eested the hopes of Italy ; 50 

I had devised a certain tale 
Which, when 'twas told her, could not fail 
Persuade a peasant of its truth ; 
I meant to call a freak of youth 
This hiding, and give hopes of pay, 
And no temptation to betray. 
But when I saw that woman 's face, 
Its calm simplicity of grace, 
Our Italy's won attitude 

In which she walked thus far, and stood, 60 

Planting each naked foot so firm. 
To crush the snake and spare the worm — 
At first sight of her eyes, I said. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 101 

^^ I am that man upon whose head 

They fix the price, because I hate 

The Austrians over us: the State 

Will give you gold — oh, gold so much ! — 

If you betray me to their clutch, 

And be your death, for aught I know, 

If once they find you saved their foe. 70 

Now, you must bring me food and drink, 

And also paper, pen and ink. 

And carry safe what I shall write 

To Padua, which you'll reach at night 

Before the duomo shuts ; go in, 

And wait till Tenebrae begin ; 

Walk to the third confessional, 

Between the pillar and the wall, 

And kneeling whisper, Whence comes peace? 

Say it a second time, then cease ; 80 

And if the voice inside returns. 

From Christ and Freedom; what concerns 

The cause of Peace? — for answer, slip 

My letter where you placed your lip ; 

Then come back happy we have done 

Our mother service — I, the son. 

As you the daughter of our land ! 



>> 



Three mornings more, she took her stand 
In the same place, with the same eyes : 
I was no surer of sunrise 90 

Than of her coming. We conferred 
Of her own prospects, and I heard 

75. duomo: The cathedral. 

77. Tenebrae: Services held on certain afternoons and even- 
ings of Holy Week, in memory of the darkness during the suffer- 
ings and death of Christ. At these services it is customary to 
gradually darken the church. 



102 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

She had a lover — stout and tall, 

She said — then let her eyelids fall, 

' ' He could do much ' ' — as if some doubt 

Entered her heart, — then, passing out, 

'' She could not speak for others, who 

Had other thoughts ; herself she knew : ' ' 

And so she brought me drink and food. 

After four days, the scouts pursued 100 

Another path ; at last arrived 

The help my Paduan friends contrived 

To furnish me : she brought the news. 

For the first time I could not choose 

But kiss her hand, and lay my own 

Upon her head — ^' This faith was shown 

To Italy, our mother; she 

Uses my hand and blesses thee." 

She followed down to the sea-shore ; 

I left and never saw her more. 110 

How very long since I have thought 
Concerning — much less wished for — aught 
Beside the good of Italy, 
For which I live and mean to die ! 
I never was in love ; and since 
Charles proved false, what shall now convince 
My inmost heart I have a friend? 
However, if I pleased to spend 
Real wishes on myself — say, three — 
I know at least what one should be. 120 

I would grasp Metternich until 
I felt his red wet throat distill 
In blood through these two hands. And next 
— Nor much for that am I perplexed — 
Charles, perjured traitor, for his part, 
Should die slow of a broken heart 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 103 

Under his new employers. Last 

— Ah, there, what should I wish ? For fast 
Do I grow old and out of strength. 

If I resolved to seek at length 130 

My father's house again, how seared 
They all would look, and unprepared ! 
My brothers live in Austria's pay 

— Disowned me long ago, men say ; 
And all my early mates who used 

To praise me so — perhaps induced 

More than one early step of mine — 

Are turning wise: while some opine 

^' Freedom grows license," some suspect 

^' Haste breeds delay," and recollect 140 

They always said, such premature 

Beginnings never could endure ! 

So, with a sullen * ' All 's for best, ' ' 

The land seems settling to its rest. 

I think then, I should wish to stand 

This evening in that dear, lost land. 

Over the sea the thousand miles. 

And know if yet that woman smiles 

With the calm smile ; some little farm 

She lives in there, no doubt : what harm 150 

If I sat on the door-side bench, 

And, while her spindle made a trench 

Fantastically in the dust, 

Inquired of all her fortunes — just 

Her children's ages and their names. 

And what may be the husband's aims 

For each of them. I 'd talk this out. 

And sit there, for an hour about, 

Then kiss her hand once more, and lay 

Mine on her head, and go my way. 160 



104 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

So much for idle wishing — how 
It steals the time! To business now. 



MEMORABILIA 

Ah, did you once see Shelley plain, 

And did he stop and speak to you, 
And did you speak to him again ? 

How strange it seems and new ! 

But you were living before that. 

And also you are living after; 
And the memory I started at — 

My starting moves your laughter! 

I crossed a moor, with a name of its own 

And a certain use in the world no doubt, 10 

Yet a hand's-breadth of it shines alone 
'Mid the blank miles round about: 

For there I picked up on the heather, 

And there I put inside my breast 
A moulted feather, an eagle-feather ! 

Well, I forget the rest. 



EVELYN HOPE 

Beautiful Evelyn Hope is dead ! 

Sit and watch by her side an hour. 
That is her book-shelf, this her bed ; 

She plucked that piece of geranium-flower, 
Beginning to die too, in the glass ; 

Little has yet been changed, I think: 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 105 

The shutters are shut, no light may pass 

Save two long rays through the hinge 's chink. 

Sixteen years old when she died ! 

Perhaps she had scarcely heard my name ; 10 

It was not her time to love ; beside, 

Her life had many a hope and aim, 
Duties enough and little cares, 

And now was quiet, now astir, 
Till God's hand beckoned unawares, — 

And the sweet white brow is all of her. 

Is it too late then, Evelyn Hope ? 

What, your soul was pure and true, 
The good stars met in your horoscope, 

Made you of spirit, fire and dew — 20 

And, just because I was thrice as old 

And our paths in the world diverged so wide, 
Each was naught to each, must I be told? 

We were fellow mortals, naught beside? 

No, indeed ! for God above 

Is great to grant, as mighty to make, 
And creates the love to reward the love : 

I claim you still, for my own love 's sake ! 
Delayed it may be for more lives yet. 

Through worlds I shall traverse, not a few : 30 
Much is to learn, much to forget 

Ere the time be come for taking you. 

But the time will come, — at last it will. 

When, Evelyn Hope, what meant (I shall say) 

19. horoscope: The aspect of the heavens at the moment of 
one's birth, with special reference to the position of the planets. 
From this the astrologers professed to foretell one's future. 



106 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

In the lower earth, in the years long still, 
That body and soul so pure and gay? 

Why your hair was amber, I shall divine. 

And your mouth of your own geranium's red — 

And what you would do with me, in fine, 

In the new life come in the old one 's stead. 40 

I have lived (I shall say) so much since then, 

Given up myself so many times. 
Gained me the gains of various men, 

Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes ; 
Yet one thing, one, in my soul 's full scope, 

Either I missed or itself missed me : 
And I want and find you, Evelyn Hope! 

What is the issue ? let us see ! 



I loved you, Evelyn, all the while ! 

My heart seemed full as it could hold ; 50 

There was place and to spare for the frank young smile, 

And the red young mouth, and the hair's young 
gold. 
So, hush, — I will give you this leaf to keep : 

See, I shut it inside the sweet cold hand ! 
There, that is our secret : go to sleep ! 

You will wake, and remember, and understand. 



THE LAST RIDE TOGETHER 

I SAID — Then, dearest, since 'tis so. 
Since now at length my fate I know. 
Since nothing all my love avails, 
Since all, my life seemed meant for, fails. 
Since this was written and needs must be 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 107 

My whole heart rises up to bless 
Your name in pride and thankfulness! 
Take back the hope you gave, — I claim 
Only a memory of the same, 

— And this beside, if you will not blame, 10 

Your leave for one more last ride with me. 

My mistress bent that brow of hers ; 
Those deep dark eyes where pride demurs 
When pity would be softening through, 
Fixed me a breathing-while or two 

With life or death in the balance : right ! 
The blood replenished me again; 
My last thought was at least not vain : 
I and my mistress, side by side 
Shall be together, breathe and ride, 20 

So, one day more am I deified. 

Who knows but the world may end to-night ? 

Hush ! if you saw some western cloud 

All billowy-bosomed, over-bowed 

By many benedictions — sun 's 

And moon's and evening-star's at once — 

And so, you, looking and loving best, 
Conscious grew, your passion drew 
Cloud, sunset, moonrise, star-shine too, 
Down on you, near and yet more near, 30 

Till flesh must fade for heaven was here ! — 
Thus leant she and lingered — joy and fear ! 

Thus lay she a moment on my breast. 

Then we began to ride. My soul 
Smoothed itself out, a long-cramped scroll 
Freshening and fluttering in the wind. 



108 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

Past hopes already lay behind. 

What need to strive with a life awry ? 
Had I said that, had I done this, 
So might I gain, so might I miss. 40 

Might she have loved me? just as well 
She might have hated, who can tell! 
Where had I been now if the worst befell ? 

And here we are riding, she and I. 

Fail I alone, in words and deeds? 
Why, all men strive, and who succeeds ? 
We rode ; it seemed my spirit flew, 
Saw other regions, cities new. 

As the world rushed by on either side. 
I thought, — All labor, yet no less 50 

Bear up beneath their unsuccess. 
Look at the end of work, contrast 
The petty done, the undone vast, 
This present of theirs with the hopeful past ! 

I hoped she would love me ; here we ride. 

What hand and brain went ever paired ? 
What heart alike conceived and dared? 
What act proved all its thought had been ? 
What will but felt the fleshly screen ? 

We ride and I see her bosom heave. 60 

There's many a crown for who can reach. 
Ten lines, a statesman's life in each! 
The flag stuck on a heap of bones, 
A soldier's doing! what atones? 
They scratch his name on the Abbey-stones. 

My riding is better, by their leave. 

38. with: Against. 

61. who: Whoever. 

64. atones: Compensates. 

05, Abbey-stones: The monuments in Westminster Abbey. 



SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 109 

What does it all mean, poet ? Well, 

Your brains beat into rhythm, you tell 

What we felt only ; you expressed 

You hold things beautiful the best, 70 

And place them in rhyme so, side by side. 
'Tis something, nay 'tis much : but then. 
Have you yourself what's best for men? 
Are you — poor, sick, old ere your time — 
Nearer one whit your own sublime 
Than we who never have tuned a rhyme ? 

Sing, riding's a joy! For me, I ride. 

And you, great sculptor — so, you gave 

A score of years to Art, her slave. 

And that's your Venus, whence we turn 80 

To yonder girl that fords the burn ! 

You acquiesce, and shall I repine? 
What, man of music, you grown gray 
With notes and nothing else to say. 
Is this your sole praise from a friend, 
^' Greatly his opera's strains intend, 
But in music we know how fashions end ! " 

I gave my youth ; but we ride, in fine. 

Who knows what's fit for us? Had fate 
Proposed bliss here should sublimate 90 

My being — had I signed the bond — 
Still one must lead some life beyond. 

Have a bliss to die with, dim-descried. 
This foot once planted on the goal, 
This glory-garland round my soul. 
Could I descry such? Try and test! 
I sink back shuddering from the quest. 

90. sublimate: Purify. 
96. Such what? 



110 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

Earth being so good, would heaven seem best ? 
Now, heaven and she are beyond this ride. 

And yet — she has not spoke so long ! 100 

What if heaven be that, fair and strong 
At lifers best, with our eyes upturned 
Whither life's flower is first discerned, 

We, fixed, so ever should so abide ? 
What if we still ride on, we two, 
With life forever old yet new. 
Changed not in kind but in degree, 
The instant made eternity, — 
And heaven just prove that I and she 

Eide, ride together, forever ride? 110 



PROSPICE 

Fear death ? — to feel the fog in my throat. 

The mist in my face, 
When the snows begin, and the blasts denote 

I am nearing the place. 
The power of the night, the press of the storm. 

The post of the foe ; 
Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form, 

Yet the strong man must go : 
For the journey is done and the summit attained, 

And the barriers fall, 10 

Though a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained. 

The reward of it all. 
I was ever a fighter, so — one fight more. 

The best and the last ! 

101. that: introduces the clause ** we, fixed so, etc." 



SELECT POEMS OP BROWNING 111 

I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore, 

And bade me creep past. 
No ! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers 

The heroes of old. 
Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears 

Of pain, darkness and cold. 20 

For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave, 

The black minute's at end, 
And the elements' rage, the fiend- voices that rave. 

Shall dwindle, shall blend. 
Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain, 

Then a light, then thy breast, 
O thou soul of my soul ! I shall clasp thee again, 

And with God be the rest ! 



EPILOGUE TO ASOLANDO 

At the midnight in the silence of the sleep-time. 

When you set your fancies free. 
Will they pass to where — by death, fools think, im- 
prisoned — 
L(0w he lies who once so loved you, whom you loved 
so, 
— Pity me ? 

Oh, to love so, be so loved, yet so mistaken ! 
What had I on earth to do 

16. Note the force of the word creep. 

17. fare: Go forward. 

19. life's arrears: The debt he owes life. 

23. fiend-voices: An allusion to the mediaeval belief that at 
death angelic spirits and fiends of darkness struggled for posses- 
sion of the departing soul. 

5. Will they pity me? 



112 SELECT POEMS OF BROWNING 

With the slothful, with the mawkish, the unmanly ? 
Like the aimless, helpless, hopeless, did I drive ! 

— Being — who ? 10 

One who never turned his back but marched breast for- 
ward. 
Never doubted clouds would break. 
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would 

triumph, 
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better. 
Sleep to wake. 

No, at noonday in the bustle of man's work-time 

Greet the unseen with a cheer ! 
Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be, 
* ' Strive and thrive ! ' ' cry ^ ' Speed, — fight on, fare ever 
There as here! '' 20 

8. mawkish: Insipid; sentimentally fastidious. 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM 
GHENT TO AIX 

Bells and Pomegrante^, 1845 

This poem is one of the fruits of Browning's trip to the 
Continent in 1838. " There is/' says the poet, " no sort of his- 
torical foundation about Good 'News from Ghent, I wrote it 
under the bulwark of a vessel off the African coast, after I had 
been at sea long enough to appreciate even the fancy of a gallop 
on the ba€k of a certain good horse ' York * at home. It was writ- 
ten in pencil on the fly-leaf of Bartoli's Simholi, I remember/' 

1. In his opening stanza what does the poet make you feel about 
the mission of these riders ? What suggestion in " sprang " ? 
In the greeting of the watch? In the fact that they galloped 
even in the streets and through the postern? In the fact that 
they spoke " not a word to each other " ? 

2. (a) What character-hints regarding the speaker in the sec- 
ond stanza? Why does he tighten the girth and adjust the stir- 
rups and bridle? Do the other riders do this? (b) What hint 
concerning the horse in line 12? 

3. (a) How far is it from Ghent to Lokeren? How will the 
mention of the villages through which they passed help readers 
familiar with the Low Countries? (b) What does the remark of 
Joris, after half a night's silence, show ? 

4. (a) Does not stanza iv help you to imagine yourself with 
the riders? How? (b) What further character-hints regarding 
Roland in lines 22-30 ? Why was *^ one sharp ear bent back " 
and the other " pricked out on his track " ? What suggestion in 
the faet that his fierce lips shook the foam-flakes upwards? 

5. (a) What effect does the death of the first horse have upon 
us? (b) How does stanza viii deepen our impression of what 
the ride meant tQ both horses and riders? Why does the sun 

8 113 



114 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

seem to them to " laugh a pitiless laugh " ? Did you ever cross a 
stubble-field in August? (e) How is it that they are riding 
through a stubble-field instead of on the 'highway? What sug- 
gestion in " sprang " ? In " gasped " ? 

6. (a) In the beginning of the poem in what were you chiefly 
interested? When the horses of Dirck and Joris have died, upon 
what do you find your interest centered? (b) How does Brown- 
ing (11. 43-44) bring out the superior mettle of the second 
horse? What is brought out by lines 47-48? 

7. What does Browning bring out in lines 49-53 about the 
rider? Why does he not tell us the horse's pet name? What pet 
name'^would you give your favorite horse? 

8. What was the condition of the rider at the end of the ride? 
What, then, of the horse that had carried him? What is shown 
by the exhausted rider's giving his horse the '^ last measure of 
wine"? (b) Why was this horse willing to run himself to 
death's door for his master ? Do you care much for the *^ good 
news " now I What, then, is the real theme of the poem ? 

9. Is Roland still alive when the story is told? (Line 57.) 
Can you not picture the speaker telling the story with his hand 
on Roland's mane? 



THROUGH THE METIDJA TO ABD-EL-KADR 

Bells and Pomegranates. 1842 

Abd-el-Kadr (Arabic, servant of the Mighty God), led the 
Arabs against the French invaders of Algeria. He proved him- 
self a skillful and intrepid leader, and succeeded in firmly uniting 
all the Arab tribes. He waged war intermittently for sixteen 
years, but finally surrendered himself upon the promise of being 
allowed to retire to Alexandria. The French government, how- 
ever, broke faith with him, and he spent the next five years in 
various French prisons. Louis Napoleon released him in 1852 on 
condition of his not returning to Algiers. He is said to have died 
in Mecca in 1873. Berdoe states that the poem is founded on 
an incident of the war when the Duke d'Aumale fell upon the 
Emir's camp and took several thousand prisoners. As a matter 
of fact, this event took place five years after the poem was pub- 
lished. At the time these verses were written all Europe was 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 115 

ringing with the exploits of Abd-el-Kadr, but the historical pur- 
pose of the poem is only secondary. 

1. (a) Who is the speaker? What is the purpose of the ride? 
What feeling possesses the rider? (b) How does this poem differ 
in movement from the preceding one? Why should this be so? 

2. Compare the feeling of this rider for his horse (11. 26-32) 
with that shown by the master of Roland. 

INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP 
Bells and Pomegranates. 1842. 

This poem originally formed the first part of Camp and Cloister 
under the title 7. Camp. II. Cloister reappeared as Soliloquy of 
the Spanish Cloister, to which reference has been made in the In- 
troduction. 

This vivid little monologue is concerned with events connected 
with the siege of Ratisbon, stormed by Napoleon in 1809. The 
story is true, except that the hero was a man instead of a boy. 

1. Who is telling the story? Can you imagine the circle of 
listeners, at his fireside or at the village inn? 

2. Have you ever seen a full-length portrait of Napoleon ? Does 
the description in the first stanza enable you to " fancy how " 
he looked on this battle day? 

3. (a) What side of Napoleon is shown by his musings? (b) 
What is your only interest in the rider at first? When does 
your personal interest in him begin? WTiat does Browning gain 
by the change which he makes in the story? 

4. What striking character-hints in the third stanza? What 
new and surprising evidence of heroism in lines 29-31? Where is 
your interest now? 

5. (a) What prevents the Emperor's seeing the boy's condition 
at once? What trait of Napoleon comes out in lines 33-36? (b) 
What characteristics of Napoleon's soldiers does the boy typify? 

6. How does the plan of this poem resemble that of How They 
Brought the Good Netvs from Ghent to Aix? 



116 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELTN 
Bells and Pomegranates, 1842 

This fanciful poem was written for " Willy " Macready, the son 
of the famous actor who had produced Browning's drama, (Straf- 
ford, a few years before. The lad was just recovering from illness 
and, being -clever with his pencil, asked Browning for a poem 
to illustrate. To this fact we owe what Stedman calls " the 
daintiest bit of folk-lore in English verse." 

Dr. Furnivall believes that the poet got the idea of the poem 
from an old book of the seventeenth century, entitled The Wonders 
of the Little World. The story, however, is a very old one, going 
back to ancient mythology and appearing even in the folk-lore of 
Persia and China. 

The simplicity and naive humor of the poem have made it a 
household favorite all over the English-speaking world. It affords 
many illustrations of the grotesque rhymes in which Browning 
occasionally indulged when he was in a sportive mood. 



HERVE KIEL 
Cornhill Magazine, 1871 

In 1692, Louis XIV of France, intent upon restoring James II 
to the throne of England, gathered a great fleet for a descent upon 
the English coast. On May 16 of that year the combined fleets 
of England and Holland decisively defeated the French fleet in 
the battle of La Hogue and took from France the mastery of the 
sea. The exploit of Herv(5 Riel is essentially historical and is 
duly set down in the records of the French admiralty. It was not 
a day's holiday, however, which the bluff Breton sailor chose, but 
a holiday for life. 

The hundred pounds received for Herve Riel from the Cornhill 
Magazine were very appropriately contributed by Browning to the 
relief fund for the distressed citizens of Paris after its fall in 
1871. The poem had been written four years before at Le Croisic, 
the former home of Herv^ Riel. 

In this poem. Browning, contrary to his usual custom, speaks in 
his own person. 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 117 

1. What does the poet let the reader know in the first two lines? 
How does he bring out the condition of the French fleet? What 
is shown by line 8? 

2. (a) Why do the Malouins refuse to take the ships into the 
harbor ? ( b ) Why does the Admiral propose to burn the fleet ? 

3. (a) What is particularly good (11. 38-43) in Browning's 
introduction of his hero? Why does he mention that Herv6 Riel 
was a ** poor coasting-pilot " and that he was " pressed '' for the 
fleet? (b) What strong character hints in the sixth stanza? 
Why did he choose the biggest and hardest ship to steer? How 
do lines 73-75 emphasize the pilot's skill and daring? 

4. (a) What still holds our attention after the ships are safe 
in the harbor? What additional character hints in lines 100-103 
and 114-117? In his reply to the Admiral? (b) What does 
Browning gain by his departure from historical fact? 



PHEIDIPPIDES 
Dramatic Idyls. 1879 

This stirring poem is based upon a story told in slightly varying 
form by Herodotus, Pausanias, and Cornelius Nepos. 

When Athens was threatened by the Persians she sent a runner 
to Sparta to ask for aid. He covered the hundred and fifty miles 
between Athens and Sparta in two days but failed in his mission. 
In spite of his weariness he set out at once upon the return 
journey. 

" And as to Pan," says Pausanias, " they say that Philippides 
reported that the Lacedaemonians were deferring their march, for 
it was their custom not to go out on a campaign till the full moon. 
But he said that he had met Pan near the Parthenian forest, and 
the god had said that he was a friend to the Athenians and would 
come out and help them at Marathon. For this message Pan has 
been much honored." 

The part of Pheidippides in the battle of Marathon is Brown- 
ing's creation. 

1. Where is the speaker and whom is he addressing? What 
trait of Greek character is shown in the first eight lines? 

2. (a) Show the force of the figures in lines 14-15. (b) What 



118 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

were the relations of Athens and Sparta at this time? On what 
grounds, then, could aid be expected from Sparta? (c) What 
feeling is shown in lines 20-21 ? Was this the way to win Sparta? 
(d) Why does Pheidippides exclaim, "No care for my limbs"? 
What is being done for him? (e) Explain lines 31-33. What 
does Pheidippides think of Sparta's excuse? In what tone does 
he repeat their reply? 

3. (a) Explain lines 41-42. (b) Why does he renounce all 
the gods and turn from Olumpos to desolate Parnes? (c) What 
peculiar fitness in the use of the word " dive " ? 

4. (a) What impression does Pan make on Pheidippides? (b) 
What is prophetic in line 78? What does the gift of fennel 
signify? Does the runner understand this? How does he show 
his faith in Pan? 

5. (a) What trait of character (1. 84) does the youth show by 
suddenly breaking off his story? (See also lines 92-93.) How 
did he interpret Pan's promise of reward? What was the real 
meaning ? 

6. Who is speaking from line 105 to the end? Did the Greeks 
regard the last run of Pheidippides as a task ? Why did Browning 
thing the runner's death blissful and glorious? What do you 
thinly of it? 

7. (a) Show how this poem brings out strongly three typical 
characteristics of the Greeks, (b) Dowden has called Pheidip- 
pides " a graceful brother of the Breton sailor who saved a fleet 
for France." Show that this is well said. 



THE PATRIOT 

Men and Women. 1855 

Browning's purpose here, as in Through the Metidjaf is dramatic 
and not historical ; he aims rather at setting forth a truth than at 
depicting an event. 

1. (a) What different meanings might the sub-title have? 

(b) Under what circumstances does the speaker tell his story? 

(c) What had the people celebrated a year before? Explain lines 
3-4. 

2. Explain lines 9-10. What had the patriot tried to do? 

3. (a) What is going on to-day? Why is there "nobody on 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 119 

the housetops now '^ ? Why are the palsied ones set at the win- 
dows? (b) What does the phrase "best of the sight" show 
about the popular feeling ? What does the word '* Shambles '' 
suggest to the imagination? 

4. (a) What sharp contrast is shown in the fifth stanza? 
What significance in the fact that the rope cuts his wrists " more 
than needs'^? (b) Does the speaker really believe that the past 
year has been one of misdeeds? Who has changed, patriot or 
people ? 

5. (a) What danger does he see in dying in the hour of tri- 
umph? What enables him to view his own downfall so calmly? 
(b) What truth does the poet mean to teach? What, then, does 
he mean by ** An Old Story " ? Can you illustrate this truth 
from history? 



INSTANS TYRANNUS 

Men and Women. 1855 

The title of this poem was taken from one of Horace's Odes 
(Book iii, Ode 3), and the theme was doubtless suggested by the 
same passage: 

Justum et tenacem proposti virum, 
Non civium ardor prava jubentium, 
Non vultus instantis tyranni mente 
Quatit solida. 

The following metrical translation is by Gladstone: 

" The just man in his purpose strong. 
No madding crowd can turn to wrong. 
The forceful tyrant's brow and word 



His firm-set spirit cannot move.'* 



This hateful king, whose " envy crawls into almost motiveless 
hatred," inevitably suggests the malignant monk of the Soliloquy 
of the Spanish Cloister, who hated his brother monk for his very 
simplicity and sweetness of soul. The contrasted types in the two 
poems are almost identical. 



120 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

1. (a) Who is the speaker? What impression of him do you 
get from the first stanza? From the second? (b) What motive 
actuated him at first? (Line 3.) What aggravated his feeling 
against his victim? What character hints regarding the latter 
in the second stanza? 

2. What subtle means (11. 23-30) does he next employ? What 
would he do (11. 23-30) if it lay in his power? What baffles him? 
What is his idea of filth? 

3. What suggestion in the fact that he goes about his last plan 
" soberly " ? What is he beginning to feel ? 

4. (a) Explain the figurative description in lines 55-58. 
What does the tyrant confidently expect? Why does he finally 
fail utterly? Of what is he afraid at the end? Is his fear phys- 
ical? (b) Does the victim necessarily escape the physical ven- 
geance of the tyrant? What does the poem teach? Compare it 
with The Patriot. 

THE LOST LEADER 

Bells and Pomegranates, 1845 

The early part of the nineteenth century was characterized by 
a spirit of revolution, making for progress and freedom in politics, 
in religion, and in literature. In England the leading Revolutionary 
poets were Wordsworth, Southey, Byron, Burns, Shelley, and 
Keats. In his later years, Wordsworth left the liberal cause and 
became a strong conservative, opposing both the Catholic Eman- 
cipation and the Reform Bills. When this poem was published 
many supposed that it was a direct thrust at Wordsworth, but 
The Lost Leader was rather meant to typify all those who left 
the cause of Liberalism. Concerning this the poet has said in a 
letter : " I did in my hasty youth presume to use the great and 
venerated personality of Wordsworth as a sort of painter's model; 
one from which this or that particular feature may be selected or 
turned to account; had I intended more, above all such a boldness 
as portraying the entire man, I should not have talked about 
* handsful of silver and bits of ribbon.' These never influenced 
the change of politics in the great man. . . . So, though I dare 
not deny the origin of my little poem, I altogether refuse to 
have it considered as the * very effigies ' of such a moral and in- 
tellectual superiority." 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 121 

1. (a) What had been the relations of the " lost leader " and 
his followers? Had he led through his statesmanship? (Line 
18.) What had caused his desertion? (b) Why does the poet 
not wish him to return? 

2. What dominant trait of the poet comes out in the closing 
lines ? 

CAVALIER TUNES 

Dramatic Lyrics. 1842 

The stirring Cavalier Tunes are the only poems of the series 
entitled Dramatic Lyrics in which the subject is taken from Eng- 
lish life. They breathe the very spirit of the dashing Cavaliers 
who followed King Charles the First, even to the death. The 
third song was originally entitled My Wife Gertrude. 

1. (a) Why were the Cavaliers so called? What does the 
swing of the first song suggest? Under what circumstances is 
it being sung? 

(b) What does this song show of the feeling of the Cavaliers 
toward the Puritans? (LI. 2, 7, 14). Why is the idea of "gen- 
tlemen " emphasized ? 

2.. (a) Picture the scene of the second song, an old banqueting 
hall, crowded with feasting Cavaliers, (b) What trait of the 
Cavaliers is voiced in the opening lines ? ( c ) What characteristic 
of King Charles is brought out in the second stanza? What is 
one reason for the devotion of his followers? (d) What mingled 
feelings are expressed in the closing stanza? 

3. (a) Under what circumstances is the third song sung? 
What better side of the Cavaliers comes out here? (b) If '* wife 
Gertrude " shows such spirit, what of the Cavaliers themselves ? 

4. Was Browning in sympathy with the cause which the Cav- 
aliers represented? (See The Lost Leader.) What, then, is his 
aim in these songs? 



MY LAST DUCHESS 

Bells and Pomegranates. 1842 

This monologue is a marvel of condensation and suggestion. 
Professor Sherman says of it ; " It is a five act tragedy in fifty 



122 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

lines." Tlie poem splendidly illustrates Browning's ability to 
present two contrasting types of character through the words of 
one of them. 

The speaker is the Duke of Ferrara, typifying Italian char- 
acter of the Eenaissance, " at its best of intellectual, but at its 
worst, of spiritual culture." To secure a successor to his '* last 
Duchess," he has summoned to his palace the representative of a 
Count, with whom he has been discussing preliminary arrange- 
ments as to dower, etc. As they are about to pass down the 
stairs he pauses^ as if casually to show his visitor Fra Pandolf's 
w^onderful masterpiece, but in reality to make clear to the emis- 
sary of the humbler Count what the great Duke of Ferrara expects 
of the future Duchess in the way of conduct. 

1. Can you imagine the scene as the haughty Duke pauses at 
the top of the grand stair-case and drawls the curtain from before 
the picture? For what does he chiefly prize the picture? Why 
does he permit none to put by the curtain but himself? (c) Why 
is he careful to say that a monk painted the picture? 

2. What hints do we have of the physical beauty of the 
Duchess? (b) W^hat do lines 20-31 show of her character? W^as 
there anything to condemn in the actions he speaks of? (c) Was 
it only love for the Duchess that caused him jealously to resent 
her being " too soon made glad " ? What hint of the true reason 
in lines 32-34? What attitude would he have had her take 
tow^ard the rest of the world? 

3. Do you think the Duke really had no skill of speech? 
What dominant trait of character kept him silent until at last his 
commands "stopped all smiles together"? (Line 42.) How 
does he seem to feel regarding his success in crushing the sweet, 
joyous soul of the Duchess? 

4. (a) To w^hat question does the Duke now return? Do you 
think the envoy w^ould understand the purpose of the Duke's re- 
marks concerning his "last Duchess"? (b) Explain the remark, 
" Nay, we'll go down together, sir." (c) What side of the Duke's 
character is brought out in his closing speech? 

5. What impression has Bro^ATiing given you of the character of 
the Duke? Of the Duchess? 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 123 

COUNT GISMOND 
Bells and Pomegranates. 1842 

This monologue and the one entitled My Last Duchess originally 
had the common title Italy and France, the latter being called 
No, L Italy and the former No, II. France. Count Gismond 
breathes the spirit of the days of chivalry, just as My Last 
Duchess reflects a certain type of the Renaissance period. 

In Count Gismond we have another splendid example of Brown- 
ing's power of suggestion and condensation. How much is left 
to the reader's imagination! What had led the cousins to form 
so dastardly a plot against this innocent, lovable girl? How 
could Count Gauthier play so despicable a part? Was he per- 
haps a rejected suitor? The heroine had never seen Gismond's 
face before; but had he not perhaps been watching hers all 
through the tourney week? It is a romance compressed into a 
hundred and twenty-five lines. 

This poem is particularly remarkable for its force.i The open- 
ing lines and stanzas x-xiii, containing the climax, will be found 
especially striking in this regard. When the pupils have a suffi- 
ciently sympathetic understanding of the poem they should read 
it aloud to bring out this element. 

1. (a) Who is the speaker and to whom is she telling the 
story? (LI. 105-7.) What feeling does she show in the opening 
lines? (Read them aloud.) (b) How does Browning arouse our 
interest ? What do we learn at once of Count Gismond and Count 
Gauthier ? 

2. (a) Why should Gauthier have schemed against her? Was 
he alone in his scheming? (LI. 16-22.) (b) Who was dressing 
her in "queen's array"? (c) Why does she call the morning 
** miserable " ? What suggestion in " seemed " ? 

3. (a) Why should her cousins plot against her? What con- 
trast between their beauty and hers? (LI. 19-22.) What actions 
on their part does she feel most keenly? (b) How was the 
speaker regarded (stanza vi) by the other noble ladies and gen- 
tlemen? What does this help explain? (c) What is gained by 
introducing lines 34-36? (d) How do lines 40-42 affect your sym- 

1 See Sherman's Analytics of Literature, pp. 15 and 375. 



124 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

pathies? (e) What revelation of the speaker's character in these 
first seven stanzas? 

4. (a) Explain the break in line 46. (b) Why does she say, 
"I can proceed"? (See also last stanza.) Note Browning's use 
of suspense at this point. 

5. (a) What feeling does the speaker show by the exclamation, 
"to my face indeed"? (b) What does the listener ask after line 
60? Why had the girl no answer to Gauthier's accusation? (c) 
How did the stranger knight know that she w^as innocent? How 
did she know that she was saved? What was the belief in the 
Middle Ages regarding trial by combat? (See Ivanhoe, Chapters 
xxxvii-xliv.) 

6. (a) W^hat significance in the use of the word "strode"? 
In the fact that the blow was back-handed? (b) How could she 
so calmly study the effect of the blow upon the crowd? What 
verdict did she read in men's faces? 

7. (a) In what mood does she watch the combat? W^hat sig- 
nificance in this? (b) Why w^as Gismond "on the fret"? Why 
should he stamp? Explain his impetuous rush upon Gauthier? 

8. (a) Can you imagine the scene as Gismond drags Gauthier to 
her feet to gasp his confession from bloody lips? Why can she 
not repeat Gismond's words, even to her dearest friend? What 
character hint here? 

9. (a) W^hy is it inevitable that Gismond should take her 
away? Could she remain longer at her uncle's court? (b) Is 
she glad to go? Why is she scarcely conscious of the dripping 
sword? (c) Can you imagine the scene suggested by lines 115- 
116? 

10. (a) Explain lines 117-18. Does she yet understand w^hy 
her cousins plotted against her? (b) What character hint in 
lines 119-20? 

11. (a) What does she dwell on most in her sons? Can you 
complete the broken sentence? (b) Why is she so dismayed 
at her husband's sudden appearance? Why does she hide what 
she has been telling? Why has she never before told her friend 
the story? What does this show about Gismond? (c) What 
seems to you the purpose of the poem? Contrast Count Gismond 
and the Duke of Ferrara. 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS . 125 

HOME-THOUGHTS FROM THE SEA 
Bells and Pomegranates. 1845 

These verses were suggested by the poet's passing Cape Trafalgar 
and Gibraltar on his voyage to Italy in 1838. 

In this poem, as in the next two, Browning, contrary to his 
usual custom, speaks in his own person. 

Where is the speaker supposed to be? What great events had 
happened in that part of the world? What inspiration do the 
thoughts of these events give him? 



HOME-THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD 
Bells and Pomegranates. 1845 

As first printed this title embraced two other poems, the one 
now known as Home-Thoughts from the Sea and Here's to Nelson's 
Memory. The last mentioned poem was later published as the 
third part of Nationality in Drinks. 

This poem is notable as containing one of the four references to 
English scenery to be found in all of Browning's poetry. One of 
these is in De Gustihus — , the next poem to be studied. An- 
other is in Pauline, where the poet tells of 

one warm morn, when winter 
Crept aged from the earth, and spring's first breath 
Blew soft from the moist hills; the black -thorn boughs, 
So dark in the bare wood, when glistening 
In the sunshine were white with coming buds. 
Like the bright side of a sorrow, and the banks 
Had violets opening from sleep like eyes. 

The fourth instance occurs in The Inn Album, where Browning 
describes 

the great elm-tree in the open, posed 
Placidly full in front, smooth bole, broad branch, 
And leafage, one green plenitude of May. 

. . . bosomful 
Of lights and shades, murmurs and silences. 
Sun-warmth, dew-coolness, squirrel, bee, bird. 



126 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

1. Where did Browning spend much of his life? What can you 
say of the climate and scenery of that country? Why should the 
coming of spring bring home-thoughts? What does he miss? 

2. (a) How do lines 11-13 especially appeal to the imagina- 
tion? Explain lines 14-16. (b) For what do the buttercups and 
" the gaudy melon-flower " respectively stand? (c) What lines do 
you like most? Which of the last two poems do you prefer? 
Why? 

"DE GUSTIBUS— " 

Men and Women. 1855 

In this poem Browning contrasts some friend's preference for 
English scenery with his own love for that of Italy. He imagines 
that his friend's ghost will be found haunting an English lane, 
while his own will frequent some " wind-grieved Apennine " or 
some " blue breadth of sea " farther south. 

1. Picture for yourself the first scene. What elements make up 
its beauty. Note the musical quality of lines 9-13. 

2. How does the beauty of the second scene diflfer from that of 
the first ? How does Browning here kindle the imagination ? Note 
his effective use of phrases, such as *' wind-grieved Apennine/' 
*' rough iron-spiked," etc. (b) Which picture pleases you most? 
What lines in each do you like best? (c) Show that the title is 
a fitting one. 

SONGS FROM PIPPA PASSES 
Bells and Pomegranates. 1841 

Browning's most beautiful drama, Pippa Passes, was partially 
suggested by a visit of the poet to his much loved city of Asolo, 
in Italy. Mrs. Orr says that the idea of this poem came to Brown- 
ing from his thinking of one passing through life, apparently too 
humble to have any influence, yet unconsciously affecting the lives 
of others. 

Pippa, a little silk-weaver of Asolo, wakes early on New Year's 
Day, her one holiday, 

" that lightens the next twelve-month's toil 
At wearisome silk-winding, coil on coil." 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 127 

Planning how she may best spend this precious day, she decides 
to sit in turn outside the door of each of the grand folk whom she 
deems " the Happiest Four of our Asolo," and in fancy " taste of 
the pleasures '' which she believes they have in full measure. 

" The Happiest Four '■ are, in fact, anything but happy, for 
each is passing through a dark crisis at the very moment when 
Pippa sits outside, singing one of her simple heartfelt songs. In 
each case her song brings a transforming message to a soul ready 
to yield to the forces of evil. " Pippa passes " from place to place, 
and at nightfall, tired but happy, returns to her squalid attic, all 
unconscious that she has been " the messenger of good spiritual 
tidings to souls in dark places." 

As Browning explains later in the drama, the third song refers 
to Caterina Cornaro, 

who renounced 
The crown of Cyprus to be lady here 
At Asolo, where still her memory stays, 
And peasants sing how once a certain page 
Pined for the grace of her so far above 
The power of doing good for " Kate the Queen/' 



THE BOY AND THE ANGEL 

Hood's Magazine, 1844 

This simple poem embodies one of the poet's firmest convictions, 
a conviction voiced again in Pippa's New Year hymn: 

All service ranks the same with God. 
• ••••••• 

There is no last nor first. 

In 1845 the poem was reprinted, with five new couplets, in Bells 
and Pomegranates. The closing couplet was added in 1868. The 
original poem ended thus: 

" Go back and praise again 
The early way^ while I remain. 

Be again the boy all curFd; 
I will finish with the world. 



128 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

Theocrite grew old at home; 
Gabriel dwelt in Peter's dome." 

1. (a) What is Theocrite's station in life? How does Brown- 
ing help us see the boy? (b) What idea does Blaise put into the 
boy's head? How does it affect his life? 

2. (a) Why does Gabriel take the boy's place? Does he succeed 
in his purpose? (b) What did God miss in Gabriel's song? Why 
must it necessarily lack '* the little human praise " ? 

3. (a) What was Theocrite doing all the years that Gabriel 
spent as a craftsman? (b) On what do Theoerite's thoughts dwell 
as he prepares to praise God "the Pope's great way"? Of what 
should he haye been thinking? (c) Why does the angel think 
that his mission has been in vain? What dream of Theoerite's 
has also proyen vain? Why? 

4. (a) Explain line 68. Explain the phrase, "that weak* voice 
of disdain." What difference between Theocrite the boy and Theo- 
crite the Pope? (b) Do you see what Browning wishes to teach 
by the poem? Do you like the closing lines better than those of 
the original version? Why? 



UP AT A VILLA — DOWN IN THE CITY 

Men and Women. 1855 

In this poem we have Browning's humor at its best. You will 
look far before you find a finer example of self-revelation of char- 
acter than is furnished by this short monologue. 

1. (a) How do the title and sub-title prepare the reader for the 
poem? (b) What is made clear by the speaker's first sentence? 
W^hat side of city life attracts him? (Lines 3-5.) 

2. What would most people think of the situation of his villa? 
Explain line 10. 

3. What light is thrown upon this nobleman's tastes by the 
fourth stanza? What sort of architecture might he have found to 
admire in any typical Italian city ? W^hat sort does he admire ? 

4. What would you say of the view from his villa? (Lines 
19-20.) How does he like it? What especially attracts his at- 
tention (1. 25) to the wild tulip? What would you think of the 
fireflies in the hemp and the " tiresome whine " of the bees among 



NOTES AXD QUESTIONS 129 

the firs? What do his pet aversions in connection with country 
^, life show about this man? 

5. (a) What do his remarks in the sixth stanza show about his 
tast«? (b) What phases of city life arouse him most? (Lines 
38-42). What striking character-hint in this? (c) What does 
he mean by *• liberal thieves '*' ? Where do his sympathies lie, 
politically ? 

6. (a) The speaker believes his favorite versifier the peer of 
Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch. Judging from the sample given, 
what do vou think of his literary taste? (b) What is shown bv 
his admiration of the figure representing the Sorrowful Virgin as 
*' smiling and smart, with a pink gauze go\vn all spangles " ? 
What does a religious procession mean to him? (Lines 59-62.) 
(c) Wliat kind of music appeals to him? What kind might he 
have heard in any Italian city? 

7. (a) How does his choice of figures reflect his mind? (Lines 
7, 12, 25, 32.) (b) Sum up your impressions of this ** person of 
quality." What would attract such a man in one of our cities? 
Do we find many of his type in present-day life? 



MEMORABILIA 

Me7i and Women, 1855. 

This poem, originally entitled Memorahilia {on seeing Shelley), 
was composed on the Campagna in 1853. The influence of the 
'* Sun-treader " on Bro\vning's work has been touched upon in the 
Introduction. 

Professor Corson says: The eagle feather causes an isolated 
flash of association with the poet of the atmosphere, the winds, 
and the clouds, 

" The meteoric poet of air and sea.'' 

How is the feeling of the speaker at once made plain? Why 
does Shelley mean so much more to him than to his friend? 
How is the indifference of the friend indicated? What does the 
eagle feather signify? 



IS'O NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

THE ITALIAN IN ENGLAND 
Bells and Pomegranates. 1845 

After Napoleon's downfall the Powers reconstructed the map of 
Europe as far as possible upon the original lines. Lombardy and 
Venice were turned over to Italy and all the rest of Italy, except 
Sardinia, was placed under Austrian supervision. The petty 
tyrants were restored to their thrones and began at once relent- 
lessly to repress the spirit of liberty. The Italian people, thor- 
oughly impregnated with the revolutionary spirit, immediately 
began the long struggle for liberty and unity which was not to 
find its full fruition until half a century later. 

The poet here reflects the spirit of Young Italy, the leading 
revolutionary party of the time. Browning was proud to remem- 
ber that Mazzini, the leader of Young Italy, informed him that 
he had read this poem to his fellow-exiles in England to show 
them how an English poet could sympathize with their cause. 

This poem was first published under the title Italy in England, 
its companion piece being England in Italy, later called The Eng- 
lishman in Italy, You should read the latter poem. 

1. (a) What does the title tell us of the speaker? Of what is 
he speaking? (b) How does Browning at once capture our sym- 
pathy for the fugitive? What is his rank? (1.8.) (c) What is 
the meaning of line 11? (See line 116.) 

2. (a) How does he feel (1. 31) towards the common people? 
(b) What does he mean by " taking the chance ''? (L. 37.) 

3. (a) What traits of character does the woman show upon 
being struck by the glove? (b) Why is line 46 introduced? 

4. (a) What leads him to tell the woman the truth instead of 
the tale which he had devised? (b) What is shown about the 
state of Italy at that time by his instructions regarding the church 
at Padua? By her remarks concerning her lover? 

5. (a) What is the exile's one aim in life? What is shown by 
his three cherished wishes? (b) Why should he wish to see this 
peasant woman instead of his own kindred? 

6. What is the poet trying to make his readers feel about the 
Italians in their struggle with Austria? What does this peasant 
woman typify to the exile and to Browning? (See li. 57-62.) 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 131 



EVELYN HOPE 

Men and Women. 1855 

" The words of a dreamer, wrung out of the sorrow of death : its 
keynote, a hope of fulfillment of love in other lives, not the knowl- 
edge of love in this life. — Nettleship. 

1. What does the poet accomplish in the opening stanza? 
What had been the relations of the speaker and the dead girl? 

2. What great questions does Browning raise in the third and 
fourth stanzas? Compare Wordsworth's lines: 

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; 
The Soul, that rises with us, our life's star, 
Hath had elsewhere its setting 
And cometh from afar. 

3. What belief comforts the speaker in his great sorrow? 

THE LAST RIDE TOGETHER 

Men and Women. 1855 

" The speaker is a man who has to give up the woman he loves ; 
but his love was probably reciprocated, however inadequately, for 
his appeal for ' a last ride together ' is granted. The poem re- 
flects his changing moods and thoughts as ' here we are riding, she 
and L' — Browning Society Papers, V. 144. 

1. (a) How much had the love of his mistress meant to the 
speaker? How does he feel about his future? In spite of this, 
what is his feeling towards her? (a) Does he hope to plead his 
love further on this " last ride together " ? Why, then, does he de- 
sire it? 

2. (a) What character-hints (11. 12-14) regarding the woman? 
What is she debating in line 15? Why does it seem a matter of 
life and death to him? What will this ride mean to him here- 
after? (b) What does the speaker try to make us feel in stanza 
iii? 

3. (a) What change of mood do we already note in lines 37-38? 
Is this change for the better? (b) What worse might have be- 
fallen him? (LI. 16-17.) 



132 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

4. (a) What further source of comfort does he find? What of 
the truth of lines 50-54? (b) What must be the answer to the 
questions in stanza vi? Explain line 59. (c) Wherein does 
even the great poet fail? Why do we turn from the sculptor's 
masterpiece to the living girl ? Why does the speaker refer again 
and again to the ride, each time with a feeling of greater content ? 

5. (a) What is your answer to the question in line 89? (b) 
What does he fear might have been the result had he gained her 
full love? (c) What will he now have to cherish all his life? 
In what sense will she ride with him forever? (d) What hope 
does eternity hold for him? Compare with Evelyn Hope. 

6. Nettleship says : " The speaker has the courage to crush 
despair and ask a little favor which he made the foundation of a 
boundless ideal." Do you see what the critic means? 



PROSPICE 
Atlantic Monthly, 1864 

Prospice ( " Look forward " ) was written after the death of 
Mrs. Browning, to whom allusion is made in the closing lines. 
It is the poet's expression of his belief in immortality. Just be- 
fore his death he wrote to a friend: 

" You know as well as I that death is life, just as our daily, 
our momentarily dying body is none the less alive and ever re- 
cruiting new forces of existence. . . . Pshaw, it is foolish to argue 
upon such a thing even. For myself, I deny death as an end to 
anything. Never say of me that I am dead." 

(a) Note the opening lines with their allusions to fog and snow 
and mist. What does the poet make us feel? What spirit (11. 
11-12) does he show? W^hat attitude toward death does he es- 
pecially scorn? Note the force of the word "creep." (b) Why 
does he feel that he owes life something? Does he doubt that it 
has been worth living? (See Corson's comment, page 29.) How 
will he pay the debt? (c) What calm faith is shown in the clos- 
ing lines? 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 133 

EPILOGUE TO ASOLANDO 

1889 

In this epilogue to Asolando, published on the day of Browning's 
death, we have the last word of the poet to the world. Here, 
speaking in his own proper person, he voices the animating spirit 
of his life and poetry. 

One evening just before his last illness, as Browning was read- 
ing the proof-sheets of the poem to his sister and daughter-in-law, 
he paused after the third stanza and said : " It almost looks like 
bragging to say this, and as if I ought to cancel it; but it's the 
simple truth; and as it's true, it shall stand." 

According to Browning, what spirit has animated his work from 
first to last? What evidence of this have you found in the poems 
read? 



SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS 

While it is true in a sense that ** the method is the man him- 
self," and that no hard-and-fast rules may be laid down for the 
teaching of a poem, yet a few suggestions, born of experience, may 
not be amiss. 

Milton once said that " he who would aspire well to write of 
laudable things ought himself to be a true poem." It is equally 
true that he who would awake in others a love of poetry ought 
himself to appreciate and love it. Professor Corson has asserted 
with truth that " the best response to the essential life of a poem 
is to be secured by the fullest interpretative vocal rendering of it." 
Assuming, then, this appreciation on the part of the teacher, we 
advise him, first of all, to read the poem aloud to the class. If he 
can bring out in his reading something of the swing of the Cavalier 
Tunes, the humor of Up at a Villa — Doivn in the City, or the 
force of Count Gismond, half the battle is won. A proper read- 
ing, even without comment, is illuminating to the pupils and 
straightens out most of the twisted sentences which occasionally 
mar Browning's verse. In the case of the monologues, this reading 
also gives opportunity, through proper questioning and explana- 
tion, to bring out the dramatic setting. 

A closer study of the poem will naturally follow. The appended 
questions are not necessarily to be taken up in the class one by one, 
but are meant rather to guide the pupil through suggestion to a 
true appreciation of the poem. They will often serve as " kindling 
hints " to the imagination, causing new questions to spring up in 
the mind. The editor's experience is, that their use develops in 
the pupil the ability to read other poems with increased apprecia- 
tion and delight. 

The various elements of poetic form, such as emotional words 
and phrases, figures, meter, rhythm, and tone quality, should not 
be neglected, but their discussion should be largely incidental to 
the interpretation of the poem. The selection and cataloguing of 
the figures of speech occurring in a given number of pages is indeed 

134 



SUGOESTIONS TO TEACHERS 135 

a " wicked waste of time." After all, the things of most moment 
in Browning's poetry are his " living men and women '* and his 
poetic message, and these elements should not be obscured by 
technical discussion of details of form. 

Finally, the pupils themselves should read the poem aloud. 
The editor knows too well the difl&culties that confront the 
teacher here; but the very fact that so many pupils read poetry 
poorly is the best reason why this side of the work should be 
emphasized. The teacher will naturally have the pupils commit 
to memory some entire poems and parts of others. In this work, 
accuracy of language and vividness of expression should be in- 
sisted upon. Parrot-like recitation is of comparatively little 
value. The teacher should not fail to read other poems of Brown- 
ing to the class. The editor likes^ too, for obvious reasons, to read 
a few selections from Mrs. Browning. For instance, A Musical 
Instrument and The Death of Pom fit in admirably with Pheidip- 
pides. 

While the teacher's first aim should be to develop in the pupil 
a love of poetry, he will find in these poems excellent material for 
composition work. The pupils sometimes may be asked to write 
on the poem itself, making use of the suggestive questions as a 
running outline. They should be cautioned, however, not to make 
the composition a mere series of answers to the questions, but 
rather to use these as the basis of a connected discussion of the 
poem. A typical ^composition written by the teacher will be 
illuminating to the pupils. Again, character sketches may be 
written of the men and women who live in Browning's pages; for 
instance, a contrast may be drawn between Count Gismond and 
the Duke of Ferrara. The editor once said to his class : " Write 
a character sketch of * the Italian person of quality ' in Up at a 
Villa — Down in the City. Let each one do the work in his own 
way." One boy, who had lived both in the West and in the East, 
imagined himself telling his mates in a Montana country school 
of a " queer Italian nabob " who had once visited a Pennsylvania 
mining district. The boy, having been delegated by his father to 
show this distinguished visitor the sights, took him to a celebrated 
spot on a mountain side where there suddenly bursts on one's 
view miles and miles of green valley threaded by shining streams. 
The *' person of quality " shrugged his shoulders and turned away 
unmoved, but later displayed great enthusiasm over a dreary 



136 SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHEES 

stretch of coal " strippings," when told of the wealth that there 
lay uncovered. This incident illustrates the possibilities that 
lie in this direction. The young teacher is cautioned, however, not 
to draw too largely upon the poems for composition subjects. 
Too many exercises of this sort may create antipathy for the 
poetry itself. Besides, material for composition work should be 
largely drawn from the life of the pupil. The streets and alleys 
and fields, as well as the home and the school, are full of subjects, 
and the pupil will write best when he writes of that in which he 
is most vitally interested. 



THE END 



INDEX TO POEMS 

PAGE 

Boy and the Angel, The 90 

Cavalier Tunes 75 

Count Gismond 80 

"De Gustibus'' 86 

Epilogue to Asolando Ill 

Evelyn Hope 104 

Herve Kiel 53 

Home-Thoughts, from Abroad 85 

Home-Thoughts, from the Sea 85 

How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix . 37 

Incident of the French Camp 41 

Instans Tyrannus 70 

Italian in England, The 98 

Last Ride Together, The 106 

Lost Leader, The 73 

Memorabilia 104 

My Last Duchess 78 

Patriot, The 69 

Pheidippides 60 

Pied Piper of Hamelin, The 43 

Prospice 110 

Songs from "Pippa Passes" 88 

Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kadr 40 

Up at a Villa— Down in the City 94 



(1) 
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